dbcve.org
Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2015-7019

MEDIUM · 5.6 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-10-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 10.11.0 or later.
See remediation →
61/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
The NVIDIA driver in the Graphics Drivers subsystem in Apple OS X before 10.11.1 allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel memory or cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read and system crash) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-7020.

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 confidence

Vulnerability in the NVIDIA graphics driver in Apple OS X prior to 10.11.1 allows local users to perform out-of-bounds reads in kernel memory, potentially exposing sensitive information or causing a system crash (denial of service). This is a kernel memory access vulnerability in a graphics driver component.

MitigationApply Apple OS X 10.11.1 or later security update, which contains the patched NVIDIA graphics driver. For systems that cannot be updated, restrict local user access to untrusted accounts as a partial mitigation.

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:<= 10.11.0

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/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 checks

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

  1. Check installed OS X version
    Click Apple menu > About This Mac, or run 'sw_vers' in Terminal
    Affected if Version is 10.11.0 or earlier (10.11.0, 10.10.x, 10.9.x, etc.)
  2. Verify NVIDIA GPU presence
    Check System Report > Graphics/Displays, or run 'system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType' in Terminal
    Affected if System has an NVIDIA graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce series, etc.)
  3. Confirm kernel memory access exposure potential
    This check is informational - the vulnerability allows out-of-bounds reads in kernel memory if both the vulnerable OS X version and NVIDIA driver are present
    Affected if Both conditions above are true: OS X <= 10.11.0 AND NVIDIA GPU is installed

User is affected if running OS X 10.11.0 or earlier with an NVIDIA graphics card, as the specific driver component contains the kernel memory read vulnerability.

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 10.11.0
Interim mitigation

Apply Apple OS X 10.11.1 or later security update, which contains the patched NVIDIA graphics driver. For systems that cannot be updated, restrict local user access to untrusted accounts as a partial mitigation.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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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-2015-7019 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