CVE-2016-4617
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in certain Apple products. macOS before 10.12 is affected. The issue involves a sandbox escape related to launchctl process spawning in the "libxpc" component.
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 confidenceA sandbox escape vulnerability in libxpc allows local attackers to escape the sandbox restriction by manipulating launchctl process spawning on macOS versions prior to 10.12. This enables privilege escalation from within a sandboxed application to execute code outside the sandbox with elevated privileges.
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<= 10.11.6CVSS 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
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 macOS versionRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal or select Apple menu > About This MacAffected if The version returned is 10.11.6 or earlier (any version below 10.12)
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Verify XPC service availabilityExamine running XPC services with 'sudo launchctl list' to identify active XPC listenersAffected if XPC services are running on a vulnerable macOS version (10.11.6 or earlier)
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Inspect sandbox configurationCheck for sandboxed applications using XPC by reviewing /usr/local/sandbox or application sandbox profiles if presentAffected if Applications are running with sandbox restrictions enabled on a vulnerable OS version
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Review launchctl permissionsExamine /var/db/launchd.db/ or run 'launchctl list' to see what processes can invoke launchctlAffected if User-level or sandboxed processes have the ability to invoke launchctl on a vulnerable system
You are affected if your macOS version is 10.11.6 or any earlier version (10.11.x, 10.10.x, etc.), as the libxpc sandbox escape only affects systems prior to 10.12 Sierra.
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 macOS to version 10.12 (Sierra) or later to patch the libxpc sandbox escape vulnerability. For systems that cannot be upgraded, consider restricting user privileges and monitoring for suspicious launchctl usage.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4617 — 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-2016-4617 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
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