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Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2018-4152

HIGH · 7.0 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-04-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.13.4 or later.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 "Notes" component. A race condition allows attackers to execute arbitrary code in a privileged context 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

A race condition vulnerability exists in the macOS Notes component prior to version 10.13.4. The flaw allows a specially crafted application to trigger the race condition and achieve arbitrary code execution within a privileged context.

MitigationUpgrade macOS to version 10.13.4 or later to obtain the patched Notes component that properly synchronizes access to vulnerable code paths.

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/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 version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal or click Apple menu > About This Mac
    Affected if The version displayed is less than 10.13.4 (e.g., 10.13.3, 10.12.x, etc.)
  2. Verify Notes application is present
    Check for /Applications/Notes.app or run 'ls /Applications/Notes.app' in Terminal
    Affected if Notes.app exists on the system and the macOS version is below 10.13.4
  3. Confirm Notes component build
    Right-click Notes.app in /Applications, select Get Info, or run 'mdls -name BuildVersion /Applications/Notes.app'
    Affected if The Notes application is installed and the underlying macOS version is prior to 10.13.4

If the system runs macOS versions earlier than 10.13.4 and has the Notes application present, the environment is affected by this race condition vulnerability.

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

Upgrade macOS to version 10.13.4 or later to obtain the patched Notes component that properly synchronizes access to vulnerable code paths.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
38.0 hours of engineering $6,560
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $10,496.

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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-2018-4152 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