CVE-2013-5165
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 · uneditedsocketfilterfw in Application Firewall in Apple Mac OS X before 10.9 does not properly implement the --blockApp option, which allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions via a network connection to an application for which blocking was configured.
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 confidenceThe Application Firewall's socketfilterfw component in Mac OS X before 10.9 fails to properly enforce the --blockApp option, allowing network connections to reach applications that administrators explicitly configured to be blocked. This enables remote attackers to bypass intended application-level network access restrictions.
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<= 10.8.5= 10.8.0= 10.8.1= 10.8.2= 10.8.3= 10.8.4= 10.8.5CVSS 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
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
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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Check the Mac OS X versionRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal to determine the installed Mac OS X versionAffected if The version is 10.8.0, 10.8.1, 10.8.2, 10.8.3, 10.8.4, or 10.8.5 (any 10.8.x up to and including 10.8.5)
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Verify Application Firewall is enabledRun 'defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate' in Terminal - a value of 1 means enabled, 2 means restricted modeAffected if The firewall is enabled (value 1 or 2) and the OS version is in the affected range above
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Check for blocked applications configurationRun '/usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --listapps' in Terminal to see applications configured in the firewallAffected if Any applications are listed as blocked and the OS version is in the affected range above (the --blockApp option would not be properly enforced)
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Verify the socketfilterfw binary existsRun 'ls -l /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw' to confirm the component is presentAffected if The binary exists and the OS version is in the affected range above
A system is affected if it runs any version of Mac OS X 10.8.0 through 10.8.5 and has the Application Firewall enabled with explicitly blocked applications, because the --blockApp option will fail to prevent network connections to those blocked apps.
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 dataUpgrade to Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or later, which contains the corrected Application Firewall implementation. Alternatively, employ a third-party host-based firewall capable of application-level blocking as a compensating control.
- Consultation3.0 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-2013-5165 — 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-2013-5165 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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