CVE-2014-4458
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 · uneditedThe "System Profiler About This Mac" component in Apple OS X before 10.10.1 includes extraneous cookie data in system-model requests, which might allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via unspecified vectors.
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 confidenceThe System Profiler 'About This Mac' component in OS X versions before 10.10.1 improperly includes cookie data in HTTP requests made to fetch system-model information. This extraneous cookie data could be transmitted to external servers or intercepted, potentially exposing sensitive session or authentication information.
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<= 10.10.0= 10.0= 10.0.0= 10.0.1= 10.0.2= 10.0.3= 10.0.4= 10.1= 10.1.0= 10.1.1= 10.1.2= 10.1.3CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/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 installed OS X versionClick Apple menu > About This Mac, or run 'sw_vers' in Terminal and look at the ProductVersion fieldAffected if Version is 10.10.0 or earlier (the flaw was fixed in 10.10.1)
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Verify System Profiler accessOpen System Profiler (Applications > Utilities > System Profiler) or click 'More Info...' in About This MacAffected if The component is accessible and can be used to trigger the vulnerable HTTP requests
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Confirm network connectivity during profilingWhile System Profiler is open and loading system model information, monitor network connections using tools like Little Snitch or nethogsAffected if HTTP requests are being made to external servers with cookie data present in the request headers
You are affected if running OS X 10.10.0 or earlier and using System Profiler to fetch model information, which transmits cookies in outbound HTTP requests.
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 Mac systems running OS X versions prior to 10.10.1 to OS X 10.10.1 or later. If immediate patching is not feasible, consider blocking or monitoring network traffic from the System Profiler component to external endpoints.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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-2014-4458 — 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-2014-4458 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data