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Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2016-7603

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-02-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 10.12.1 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. macOS before 10.12.2 is affected. The issue involves the "CoreStorage" component. It allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference) 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

A local denial of service vulnerability in macOS CoreStorage prior to version 10.12.2 allows a local authenticated user to trigger a NULL pointer dereference, causing a system crash or hang. The attack vector is unspecified in the advisory, making precise reproduction difficult without further research.

MitigationApply macOS security update 2016-002 (or later) which upgrades macOS to version 10.12.2 or later to patch the CoreStorage NULL pointer dereference 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:<= 10.12.1

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 version installed
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal to retrieve the installed macOS version number
    Affected if The version returned is 10.12.1 or earlier (e.g., 10.12.0, 10.11.x, etc.)
  2. Confirm CoreStorage is in use
    Run 'diskutil cs list' in Terminal; if CoreStorage volumes are listed, CoreStorage is active on the system
    Affected if CoreStorage volumes exist and the macOS version is 10.12.1 or earlier
  3. Verify security update status
    Check System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General for installed updates, or run 'system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType' to view installed updates
    Affected if The system shows no macOS security update 2016-002 installed and remains on version 10.12.1 or below

The system is affected if it runs macOS version 10.12.1 or earlier with CoreStorage volumes present, since the NULL pointer dereference flaw exists in CoreStorage prior to version 10.12.2.

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 10.12.1
Interim mitigation

Apply macOS security update 2016-002 (or later) which upgrades macOS to version 10.12.2 or later to patch the CoreStorage NULL pointer dereference vulnerability.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-2016-7603 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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