Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2015-7035

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-10-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 10.11.0 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
Apple Mac EFI before 2015-002, as used in OS X before 10.11.1 and other products, mishandles arguments, which allows attackers to reach "unused" functions 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 confidence

Apple Mac EFI firmware before the 2015-002 update mishandles arguments in a way that allows attackers to reach and execute 'unused' functions. This is a firmware-level vulnerability affecting OS X systems prior to 10.11.1, representing a logic/authorization bypass at the boot firmware level.

MitigationApply Apple EFI firmware update 2015-002 (or update to OS X 10.11.1+) to patch the argument handling flaw. For systems no longer receiving vendor updates, consider hardware replacement or isolation measures.

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

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 macOS version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' or view About This Mac to see the installed OS X version
    Affected if Version is 10.11.0 or lower (10.11.0, 10.10.x, 10.9.x, etc.)
  2. Check EFI firmware version
    Run 'system_profiler SPHardwareDataType' and look for the 'Boot ROM Version' or 'EFI Version' field under Hardware Overview
    Affected if Boot ROM Version is earlier than the version included in the 2015-002 EFI firmware update (compare your version to the release notes for that update)

A system is affected if it runs OS X 10.11.0 or earlier AND has an EFI firmware version prior to the patched version released in the 2015-002 update.

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 EFI firmware update 2015-002 (or update to OS X 10.11.1+) to patch the argument handling flaw. For systems no longer receiving vendor updates, consider hardware replacement or isolation measures.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-7035 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-7035 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