dbcve.org
Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2019-8522

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.14.4 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
A logic issue was addressed with improved state management. This issue is fixed in macOS Mojave 10.14.4. An encrypted volume may be unmounted and remounted by a different user without prompting for the password.

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

A logic flaw in macOS Mojave's encrypted volume state management allowed a different user to unmount and remount an already-mounted encrypted volume without being prompted for the password, bypassing the authentication mechanism intended to protect the encrypted data.

MitigationApply macOS Mojave 10.14.4 or later, which contains the corrected state management logic for encrypted volume mounting.

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:< 10.14.4

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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 macOS version
    Run 'sw_vers -ProductVersion' in Terminal or view System Preferences > About
    Affected if Version is below 10.14.4 (for example, 10.14, 10.14.1, 10.14.2, or 10.14.3)
  2. Verify FileVault encryption status
    Run 'sudo fdesetup status' in Terminal
    Affected if FileVault is enabled and the macOS version is below 10.14.4
  3. Check for encrypted APFS volumes
    Run 'diskutil apfs list' to list all APFS volumes and check the 'FileVault' column
    Affected if Any APFS volume shows FileVault as 'Yes' and the macOS version is below 10.14.4
  4. Identify encrypted external volumes
    Run 'diskutil list' and check for external drives with 'APFS Volume' or 'Journaled' format showing encryption
    Affected if Encrypted external volumes are mounted and the macOS version is below 10.14.4

The environment is affected if macOS Mojave is below version 10.14.4 AND any encrypted volume (FileVault or external encrypted drive) is currently mounted or could be mounted by another user.

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 10.14.4 or later
Fixed in 10.14.4
Interim mitigation

Apply macOS Mojave 10.14.4 or later, which contains the corrected state management logic for encrypted volume mounting.

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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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-2019-8522 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