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Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2020-9997

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-10-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.2.8 / 10.15.6 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 information disclosure issue was addressed with improved state management. This issue is fixed in macOS Catalina 10.15.6, watchOS 6.2.8. A malicious application may disclose 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 · high confidence

This is an information disclosure vulnerability in macOS Catalina and watchOS where a malicious application can bypass state management controls to access restricted memory. The vulnerability allows local privilege escalation through improper isolation of memory regions.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patches: macOS Catalina 10.15.6 or later, watchOS 6.2.8 or later. In enterprise environments, deploy these updates via MDM or software distribution tools to ensure all affected systems are patched.

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:< 10.15.6
WatchosOperating system
Affected:< 6.2.8

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. Identify the macOS version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal, or open System Preferences and click About
    Affected if The version begins with 10.15 and the minor version is below 6 (e.g., 10.15.0 through 10.15.5)
  2. Identify the watchOS version if applicable
    Open the Watch app on the paired iPhone, tap General, then tap About, and note the version number
    Affected if The watchOS version is below 6.2.8 (e.g., 6.2.7 or earlier)
  3. Confirm the OS name
    Run 'sw_vers -productName' in Terminal to verify the system is macOS Catalina
    Affected if The product name is 'Mac OS X' or 'macOS' and the version is < 10.15.6

The system is affected if it is running macOS Catalina with a version lower than 10.15.6, or watchOS with a version lower than 6.2.8.

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 6.2.8 / 10.15.6 or later
Fixed in 6.2.810.15.6
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patches: macOS Catalina 10.15.6 or later, watchOS 6.2.8 or later. In enterprise environments, deploy these updates via MDM or software distribution tools to ensure all affected systems are patched.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2020-9997 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