Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2016-4633

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-07-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 10.11.5 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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
Intel Graphics Driver in Apple OS X before 10.11.6 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 confidence

Memory corruption vulnerability in the Intel Graphics Driver component of Apple OS X prior to 10.11.6 allows a local attacker running a specially crafted application to either execute arbitrary code with elevated (privileged) system context or cause a denial of service through memory corruption.

MitigationApply Apple OS X 10.11.6 or later security update, which contains the patched Intel Graphics Driver, to remediate the vulnerability.

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:<= 10.11.5

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/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 checks

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

  1. Check macOS/OS X version
    Open Terminal and run 'sw_vers -productVersion' or go to Apple menu > About This Mac
    Affected if Version is 10.11.5 or earlier (10.11.5, 10.11.4, 10.11.3, etc.)
  2. Confirm Intel Graphics Driver presence
    Check for Intel GPU by running 'system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType' in Terminal or inspecting System Report > Graphics/Displays
    Affected if System has an Intel integrated GPU (Intel HD Graphics, Iris, etc.)
  3. Verify driver loaded state
    Run 'kextstat | grep -i intel' in Terminal to list loaded Intel kernel extensions
    Affected if Intel graphics kernel extensions are loaded (com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphics, etc.)

System is affected if running OS X 10.11.5 or earlier with an Intel GPU and the Intel Graphics Driver is loaded.

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 10.11.5
Interim mitigation

Apply Apple OS X 10.11.6 or later security update, which contains the patched Intel Graphics Driver, to remediate the vulnerability.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
Get the upgrade done

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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4633 — 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-2016-4633 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