macOSOperating system · Apple

CVE-2020-29629

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-10-28
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 11.0.1 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
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 out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved input validation. This issue is fixed in macOS Big Sur 11.0.1. A malicious application may be able to read restricted memory.

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

Out-of-bounds read vulnerability in macOS that allowed a malicious application to read restricted memory. The vulnerability was addressed with improved input validation and fixed in macOS Big Sur 11.0.1.

MitigationUpdate macOS to version 11.0.1 or later to remediate 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
macOSOperating system
Affected:< 11.0.1

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/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. Confirm macOS is the running operating system
    Open Terminal and run 'uname -s' or check System Preferences > About to verify the operating system is Darwin/macOS
    Affected if The system is not running macOS (e.g., Linux, Windows) - this vulnerability only affects macOS
  2. Identify the installed macOS version number
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal, or go to Apple menu > About This Mac to view the macOS version (e.g., 10.15.7, 11.0, 11.0.1)
    Affected if The command fails or the system does not report a macOS version number
  3. Compare installed version against affected range
    Compare the version from step 2 to 11.0.1 - any version lower than 11.0.1 (such as 10.15.x, 10.14.x, 10.13.x, or early 11.0.0 releases) falls within the affected range
    Affected if The installed version is less than 11.0.1 (e.g., 10.15.7, 10.14.6, 11.0.0)

If the system runs macOS with a version lower than 11.0.1, the environment is affected by this out-of-bounds read 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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 11.0.1 or later
Fixed in 11.0.1
Interim mitigation

Update macOS to version 11.0.1 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 or later

  1. Back up important data before upgrading
  2. Ensure your Mac meets the hardware requirements for macOS Big Sur
  3. Upgrade to macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 or later by checking for updates in System Preferences > Software Update, or download and install from the Mac App Store
Caveat Big Sur is a major OS revision that introduced significant UI changes and may have compatibility issues with older applications not updated for the new version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in macOS Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-29629 — 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-2020-29629 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