CVE-2006-4408
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe Security Framework in Apple Mac OS X 10.4 through 10.4.8 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption) via certain public key values in an X.509 certificate that requires extra resources during signature verification. NOTE: this issue may be similar to CVE-2006-2940.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThe Security Framework in Apple Mac OS X 10.4 through 10.4.8 contains a denial-of-service vulnerability where specially crafted X.509 certificates with certain public key values cause excessive resource consumption during signature verification, leading to resource exhaustion.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 10.4= 10.4.1= 10.4.2= 10.4.3= 10.4.4= 10.4.5= 10.4.6= 10.4.7= 10.4.8CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine the installed Mac OS X versionClick the Apple menu, select 'About This Mac', and note the version number displayed (e.g., 10.4.8, 10.4.7, etc.)Affected if The version shown is 10.4, 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.4.3, 10.4.4, 10.4.5, 10.4.6, 10.4.7, or 10.4.8 (any 10.4.x release through 10.4.8)
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Confirm the Security Framework is in useThe Security Framework (Security.framework) is a core component of Mac OS X 10.4.x and is present by default. No additional installation or configuration is required.Affected if The system is running any affected Mac OS X 10.4.x version listed above (the Security Framework is always present and cannot be disabled)
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Identify if the system processes X.509 certificatesThe vulnerability triggers when the Security Framework verifies signatures on X.509 certificates. This occurs during SSL/TLS connections, code signing verification, certificate chain validation, and other security operations that involve certificate signature verification.Affected if The system performs any operations that involve verifying X.509 certificate signatures (such as connecting to HTTPS websites, verifying signed applications, or validating certificate chains)
You are affected if your Mac OS X version is 10.4.x through 10.4.8 and the Security Framework processes X.509 certificate signatures, which occurs during normal secure communication and code verification activities.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply Apple's security updates for Mac OS X 10.4.8 or migrate to a newer supported macOS version to patch the Security Framework vulnerability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-4408 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2006-4408 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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