CVE-2014-1261
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 · uneditedInteger signedness error in CoreText in Apple OS X before 10.9.2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted Unicode font.
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 confidenceInteger signedness error in CoreText allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via a crafted Unicode font file. The signedness error likely causes incorrect size calculations when processing font tables, potentially leading to buffer overflows during font parsing.
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<= 10.9.1= 10.9CVSS 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
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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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Check Mac OS X versionRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal to get the OS X version number (e.g., 10.9, 10.9.1, 10.8.x, etc.)Affected if Version is 10.9 or 10.9.1 or any version lower than 10.9.1 (e.g., 10.8.x) since the vulnerability exists in OS X 10.9 and below 10.9.1
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Confirm CoreText framework presenceVerify CoreText exists on the system - it is located at /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreText.framework on default OS X installationsAffected if The CoreText framework is present and the OS version is in the affected range (10.9 or <=10.9.1)
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Identify font processing exposureDetermine if the system routinely processes fonts from external or untrusted sources (e.g., email attachments, downloaded files, web content)Affected if The system processes untrusted font files and runs an affected OS X version (10.9 or 10.9.1 or earlier)
A system is affected if it runs Mac OS X 10.9 or 10.9.1 (or any version lower than 10.9.1) and uses CoreText to process font files from any source, including potentially untrusted ones.
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 to OS X 10.9.2 or later to patch the CoreText vulnerability. Until patched, avoid opening fonts from untrusted sources such as email attachments or untrusted websites.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-1261 — 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-2014-1261 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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