macOSOperating system · Apple

CVE-2022-32880

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-09-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 12.5 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
This issue was addressed by enabling hardened runtime. This issue is fixed in macOS Monterey 12.5. An app may be able to access user-sensitive data.

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 · low confidence

This macOS vulnerability allowed an application to access user-sensitive data. The fix involved enabling Apple's 'hardened runtime' security feature, which provides additional protections against code injection, debugging, and exploitation. The vulnerability existed in macOS versions prior to 12.5.

MitigationEnable hardened runtime for the affected application by enabling the 'Enable Hardened Runtime' option in Xcode project settings under Signing & Capabilities, then re-sign and redistribute the application.

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:>= 12.0.0, < 12.5

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
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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. Check macOS version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal or go to Apple menu > About This Mac
    Affected if The version is 12.0.0, 12.0.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, or 12.4 (any version >= 12.0.0 and < 12.5)
  2. Identify applications accessing sensitive data
    Review which third-party applications are installed that handle user-sensitive data such as contacts, calendars, location, photos, or documents
    Affected if Any application that accesses user-sensitive data is present on the system
  3. Verify hardened runtime status for applications
    Run 'codesign -dv /path/to/application.app' and look for 'Hardened Runtime' in the flags output, or use 'spctl --assess --verbose /path/to/application.app' to check code signing status
    Affected if The application shows 'Hardened Runtime' as disabled or not present in the code signature flags

You are affected if your macOS version is 12.0.0 through 12.4 AND any application that accesses sensitive data on your system does not have Hardened Runtime enabled in its code signature.

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 12.5 or later
Fixed in 12.5
Interim mitigation

Enable hardened runtime for the affected application by enabling the 'Enable Hardened Runtime' option in Xcode project settings under Signing & Capabilities, then re-sign and redistribute the application.

Recommended fix High confidence

macOS Monterey 12.5

  1. Check the current macOS version by clicking the Apple menu and selecting About This Mac
  2. Back up important data using Time Machine or another backup solution before performing the update
  3. Open System Preferences and select Software Update, or click the Apple menu and select System Preferences > Software Update
  4. Click "Update Now" to download and install macOS Monterey 12.5 or later
  5. Restart the Mac when prompted to complete the installation
Caveat Standard macOS point release with no major breaking changes expected; enable hardened runtime was enabled as part of this fix

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

Fix this in macOS Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-32880 — 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-2022-32880 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