CVE-2023-28596
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 · uneditedZoom Client for IT Admin macOS installers before version 5.13.5 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A local low-privileged user could exploit this vulnerability in an attack chain during the installation process to escalate their privileges to privileges to root.
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 confidenceZoom Client for IT Admin macOS installers before version 5.13.5 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. During the installation process, a low-privileged local user can exploit an attack chain to gain root privileges. This is a local-only attack requiring the attacker to have an existing low-privilege account on the target macOS system.
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< 5.13.5CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if Zoom is installedRun: ls /Applications | grep -i zoomAffected if Zoom Meetings.app exists in the Applications folder
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Find the installed Zoom versionRun: defaults read /Applications/Zoom\ Meetings.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion or right-click Zoom Meetings.app > Get Info > VersionAffected if Version number returned is lower than 5.13.5 or version cannot be determined (missing)
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Verify the installer type (optional)Check installation date and method: ls -la /Applications/Zoom\ Meetings.app/Contents/Resources/ and look for IT Admin specific components; also check: pkgutil --pkg-info=com.zoom.us 2>/dev/nullAffected if Cannot confirm IT Admin installer was used, but version < 5.13.5 applies regardless
You are affected if Zoom Meetings is installed on macOS and the version is any version earlier than 5.13.5.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 · scoped5.13.5
Upgrade Zoom Client for IT Admin macOS installers to version 5.13.5 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
5.13.5 or later
- Obtain the Zoom Client for IT Admin macOS installer version 5.13.5 or later from the official Zoom website (explore.zoom.us) or your organization's authorized software distribution channel
- Verify the installer package integrity using checksums if provided by Zoom
- Run the updated installer to install or repair the Zoom Client on affected macOS systems
- After installation, verify the installed version is 5.13.5 or later to confirm the patch has been applied
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-28596 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-28596 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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