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Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2006-6173

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2006-11-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 10.4.6 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Buffer overflow in the shared_region_make_private_np function in vm/vm_unix.c in Mac OS X 10.4.6 and earlier allows local users to execute arbitrary code via (1) a small range count, which causes insufficient memory allocation, or (2) a large number of ranges in the shared_region_make_private_np_args parameter.

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 confidence

Buffer overflow in Mac OS X kernel's vm_unix.c shared_region_make_private_np function allows local privilege escalation via insufficient memory allocation when range count is too small or when too many ranges are passed in shared_region_make_private_np_args.

MitigationApply Apple security updates for Mac OS X 10.4.x; restrict local untrusted user access to systems running vulnerable OS versions.

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
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:<= 10.4.6

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Mac OS X version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' or check System Preferences > About to determine the installed Mac OS X version
    Affected if version is 10.4.6 or earlier (any version up to and including 10.4.6)
  2. Confirm kernel version
    Run 'uname -r' to check the kernel version; kernel versions for 10.4.x typically start with 8.x
    Affected if kernel version corresponds to Mac OS X 10.4.6 or earlier
  3. Check for the vulnerable system call
    The shared_region_make_private_np system call is present in the vulnerable vm_unix.c kernel code; verify kernel is from affected OS version by cross-referencing 'uname -a' output with Apple security knowledge base for 10.4.6 and earlier
    Affected if system is running any Mac OS X 10.4.x release up to and including 10.4.6

A system is affected if it is running Mac OS X version 10.4.6 or any earlier 10.4.x release, as the vulnerable shared_region_make_private_np function in vm_unix.c is present in those versions.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 10.4.6
Interim mitigation

Apply Apple security updates for Mac OS X 10.4.x; restrict local untrusted user access to systems running vulnerable OS versions.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing24.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
56.0 hours of engineering $9,520
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2006-6173 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data