CVE-2015-5866
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 · uneditedIOHIDFamily in Apple OS X before 10.11 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code in a privileged context or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted app.
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 confidenceIOHIDFamily driver in OS X before 10.11 contains a memory corruption vulnerability that allows a malicious application to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges or crash the system. The attack requires the victim to run a crafted app, making local privilege escalation the primary exploitation vector.
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<= 10.10.5CVSS 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:M/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 your Mac OS X versionRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal to retrieve the installed OS versionAffected if The version is 10.10.5 or lower (10.10, 10.9, etc.)
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Verify IOHIDFamily driver is loadedRun 'kextstat | grep -i IOHIDFamily' in Terminal to check if the IOHIDFamily kernel extension is currently loadedAffected if The IOHIDFamily kext appears in the output, indicating the vulnerable driver is active
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Confirm IOHIDFamily kernel extension existsRun 'ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/IOHIDFamily.kext' or check via 'kextfind -name IOHIDFamily' to verify the driver is present on the systemAffected if The IOHIDFamily.kext file exists in the Extensions directory
You are affected if your Mac OS X version is 10.10.5 or lower AND the IOHIDFamily kernel extension is present and loaded on your system.
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.
dbcve · scopedApply OS X 10.11 or later security updates to patch the vulnerable IOHIDFamily driver. For legacy systems that cannot be updated, consider network segmentation and application whitelisting to reduce attack surface.
Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or later, preferably the latest supported macOS release
- Back up important data on the Mac before starting the upgrade
- Upgrade from Mac OS X 10.10.5 (or earlier) to Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or later
- To upgrade, go to the Apple menu > App Store and look for the macOS update, or download the installer from Apple's website
- After upgrading, verify the system is running Mac OS X 10.11 or later by clicking the Apple menu and selecting About This Mac
- For continued security coverage, consider upgrading to the latest supported macOS version (currently macOS Sonoma or the latest available)
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5866 — 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-2015-5866 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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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.
- 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