CVE-2014-4433
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 · uneditedHeap-based buffer overflow in the kernel in Apple OS X before 10.10 allows physically proximate attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted resource forks in an HFS filesystem.
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 confidenceHeap-based buffer overflow in the Apple OS X kernel's HFS (Hierarchical File System) implementation. The vulnerability is triggered when the kernel processes crafted resource forks within HFS filesystem images, leading to heap memory corruption that can be exploited for arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges.
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<= 10.9.5CVSS 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
- 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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Check the installed OS X versionRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal to retrieve the exact OS X version numberAffected if The version is 10.9.5 or lower (10.9, 10.8, 10.7, etc.)
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Verify HFS filesystem is in useRun 'mount' or 'diskutil list' to see which filesystems are mounted and identify if any volumes use HFS (look for 'hfs' in the output)Affected if Any HFS-formatted volumes are currently mounted on the system
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Confirm HFS kernel support is loadedCheck for loaded kernel extensions related to HFS by running 'kextstat | grep -i hfs'Affected if HFS-related kernel extensions are loaded and active on the system
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Identify if the system can mount HFS imagesAttempt to identify whether the system has the hfs.kext kernel extension present by checking /System/Library/Extensions for hfs.kext existenceAffected if The HFS kernel extension exists on the system, indicating the vulnerable code path is available
The system is affected if it runs OS X 10.9.5 or earlier and has HFS filesystem support enabled or HFS volumes mounted, as the heap overflow vulnerability exists in the HFS resource fork handling code path.
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 OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later, as this version patches the kernel heap overflow in HFS resource fork handling. For systems that cannot be upgraded, consider restricting physical access to the machine and disabling HFS formatting in favor of APFS.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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-2014-4433 — 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-2014-4433 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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