CVE-2006-4413
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 · uneditedApple Remote Desktop before 3.1 uses insecure permissions for certain built-in packages, which allows local users on an Apple Remote Desktop administration system to modify the packages and gain root privileges on client systems that use the packages.
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 · high confidenceApple Remote Desktop before version 3.1 stored built-in installation packages with insecure file permissions (likely world-writable or group-writable), allowing any local user on the administration system to modify these packages. When the modified packages are deployed to client Macs via Remote Desktop, they execute with root privileges, enabling local privilege escalation on client systems.
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<= 3.0CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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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Confirm Apple Remote Desktop admin is installedRun 'ls /Applications/Remote Desktop/' or 'system_profiler SPApplicationsVolumeType | grep -i "remote desktop"' to verify the admin software is present on the system.Affected if The application directory exists, indicating ARD admin is installed.
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Identify the installed Apple Remote Desktop versionRun 'defaults read /Applications/Remote\ Desktop/Remote\ Desktop.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion' or check the version displayed in the Remote Desktop admin app About window.Affected if The version number is 3.0 or lower (for example, 2.2, 2.1, 2.0), indicating an affected version.
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Locate built-in installation packagesExamine the Apple Remote Desktop application bundle for subdirectories containing installer packages. Common locations include /Applications/Remote Desktop/Remote Desktop.app/Contents/ or within a 'Resources' or 'Support' folder inside the application bundle.Affected if Any installer packages (.pkg or .mpkg files) are found within the ARD application directory structure.
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Check file permissions on the installation packagesRun 'ls -la' on the identified package directories and files. Look for permission strings where other users or the group have write permissions (for example, 'rwxrwxrwx' or permissions showing 'wrw-rw-r--' for group/other).Affected if Any built-in installer packages show world-writable (o+w) or group-writable (g+w) permissions, indicating the vulnerability is present.
The system is affected if Apple Remote Desktop admin version 3.0 or lower is installed AND the built-in installer packages have permissive write access for non-administrator users.
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 dataUpdate Apple Remote Desktop administration systems to version 3.1 or later, which addresses the insecure permissions. Alternatively, manually audit and correct permissions on built-in packages to restrict write access to administrators only.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-4413 — 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-2006-4413 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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