Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2014-1262

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-02-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 10.9.1 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
Apple Type Services (ATS) in Apple OS X before 10.9.2 allows attackers to bypass the App Sandbox protection mechanism via crafted Mach messages that trigger memory corruption.

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 confidence

Apple Type Services (ATS) in OS X before 10.9.2 contains a vulnerability where crafted Mach messages trigger memory corruption, allowing attackers to escape the App Sandbox protection mechanism and potentially execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

MitigationUpgrade to OS X 10.9.2 or later to apply the security patch. Until then, minimize exposure by avoiding untrusted font files and network sources, and restrict user privileges to reduce the impact of a successful exploit.

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:<= 10.9.1= 10.9

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
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 checks

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

  1. Check the installed OS X version
    Open Terminal and run 'sw_vers' or go to Apple menu > About This Mac to view the OS X version number
    Affected if The version displayed is 10.9, 10.9.1, or any version lower than 10.9.2 (such as 10.8.x or earlier)
  2. Verify the specific OS X 10.9 build
    Run 'uname -a' in Terminal to display the kernel build, or check System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General for the exact build number
    Affected if Running OS X 10.9 with any build number, or OS X 10.9.1 with any build number
  3. Confirm Apple Type Services daemon status
    Run 'launchctl list | grep -i ats' in Terminal to check if the ATS daemon (com.apple.ATSServer) is running
    Affected if ATS daemon is active on a vulnerable OS X version (10.9 through 10.9.1)
  4. Check App Sandbox configuration for font processing
    Review system logs in /var/log/system.log for any ATS-related sandbox violations, or check if applications loading untrusted fonts are running with sandbox entitlements
    Affected if Applications using ATS to process font files are operating with App Sandbox enabled on a vulnerable OS X version

You are affected if your system runs OS X 10.9 or 10.9.1 (any build), as these versions contain the vulnerable Apple Type Services code that allows sandbox escape via crafted Mach messages.

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 10.9.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to OS X 10.9.2 or later to apply the security patch. Until then, minimize exposure by avoiding untrusted font files and network sources, and restrict user privileges to reduce the impact of a successful exploit.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-1262 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-1262 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