Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2018-4107

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-04-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.13.4 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. macOS before 10.13.4 is affected. The issue involves the "PDFKit" component. It allows remote attackers to bypass intended restrictions on visiting URLs within a PDF document.

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

PDFKit in macOS before 10.13.4 contains a vulnerability that allows malicious PDF documents to bypass intended URL visit restrictions. This enables remote attackers to cause the PDF viewer to automatically navigate to arbitrary URLs embedded in specially crafted PDF files.

MitigationApply vendor patch by updating macOS to version 10.13.4 or later. This is the definitive remediation; no workarounds are recommended for this 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:< 10.13.4

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

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 installed macOS version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal or go to Apple menu > About This Mac
    Affected if The version displayed is below 10.13.4 (e.g., 10.13.3, 10.13.2, etc.)
  2. Verify PDFKit is the default PDF handler
    Right-click any PDF file, choose Get Info, and check the 'Open with' application
    Affected if PDFKit-based applications (Preview, Safari) are set as default PDF handlers and a malicious PDF is opened
  3. Confirm system is running pre-patch PDFKit
    Check /System/Library/Frameworks/PDFKit.framework/Resources/ for PDFKit components; the vulnerability exists in the framework bundled with macOS versions prior to 10.13.4
    Affected if The system has not received the 10.13.4 security update containing the fix

If macOS version is below 10.13.4 and a user opens a specially crafted PDF document with embedded URLs, the vulnerability allows automatic navigation to arbitrary URLs, bypassing intended visit restrictions.

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 10.13.4 or later
Fixed in 10.13.4
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor patch by updating macOS to version 10.13.4 or later. This is the definitive remediation; no workarounds are recommended for this vulnerability.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-4107 — 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-2018-4107 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