CVE-2015-5900
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 protected range register in the EFI component in Apple OS X before 10.11 has an incorrect value, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (boot failure) via a crafted app that writes to an unintended address.
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 confidenceThe EFI protected range register in Apple OS X before 10.11 contains an incorrect value, which allows a locally executed crafted application to write to memory addresses outside its intended bounds. This memory corruption in firmware causes boot failure, resulting in a denial of service condition.
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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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 installed OS X versionOpen Terminal and run 'sw_vers -productVersion' or click Apple menu > About This MacAffected if Version is 10.10.5 or lower (10.10, 10.9.x, etc.)
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Confirm OS X build dateRun 'sw_vers' in Terminal to see build version, or check System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General for last security update dateAffected if System has not been updated to OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or later
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Verify EFI firmware version if accessibleUse Terminal command 'ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep -i firmware' or use System Information app under Hardware > EFIAffected if EFI firmware version is from an older OS X release prior to 10.11 update cycle
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Check for local user accessReview which users have shell access or can run executables on the system via 'dscl . -list /users' or System Preferences > Users & GroupsAffected if Untrusted local users or unauthenticated individuals can execute code on the system
The system is affected if it runs OS X 10.10.5 or earlier and has not had its EFI firmware updated via OS X 10.11 or later installation.
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 10.11 (El Capitan) or later, which contains the corrected EFI firmware. For systems that cannot upgrade, verify that untrusted code cannot be executed locally.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5900 — 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-2015-5900 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