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Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2016-4727

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-09-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 10.11.6 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
IOThunderboltFamily in Apple OS X before 10.12 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 · moderate confidence

IOThunderboltFamily kernel extension in OS X before 10.12 contains a memory corruption vulnerability that can be triggered by a crafted application, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code in privileged (kernel) context or cause a denial of service.

MitigationApply the Apple security update for OS X (upgrade to macOS 10.12 or later) to patch the IOThunderboltFamily 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:<= 10.11.6

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. Determine your macOS version
    Click the Apple menu, select 'About This Mac', and note the version number displayed under the macOS name
    Affected if The version shows 10.11.6 or lower (any version 10.11.x up to and including 10.11.6)
  2. Verify the IOThunderboltFamily kernel extension is present
    Open Terminal and run: 'kextstat | grep -i thunderbolt' to list loaded Thunderbolt-related kernel extensions
    Affected if The IOThunderboltFamily extension appears in the output (indicating the vulnerable component is active)
  3. Check Thunderbolt hardware availability
    Open System Information (About This Mac > System Report) and look under the Thunderbolt section to see if any devices are detected
    Affected if Thunderbolt devices or ports are present, indicating the attack surface is enabled
  4. Confirm the kernel extension version if possible
    Run 'kextstat -b com.apple.driver.IOThunderboltFamily' to get detailed version info of the loaded extension
    Affected if The extension is loaded and no security update has been applied to patch the memory corruption flaw

Your environment is affected if you are running OS X 10.11.6 or earlier and the IOThunderboltFamily kernel extension is loaded and active on a system with Thunderbolt capability.

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 10.11.6
Interim mitigation

Apply the Apple security update for OS X (upgrade to macOS 10.12 or later) to patch the IOThunderboltFamily 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
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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-2016-4727 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