GaragebandApplication · Apple

CVE-2023-42867

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-12-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.4.9 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
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 with improved validation of the process entitlement and Team ID. This issue is fixed in GarageBand 10.4.9. An app may be able to gain root privileges.

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

GarageBand versions before 10.4.9 contain a validation flaw in process entitlement and Team ID checks that can be exploited by a malicious application to escalate privileges to root. The vulnerability stems from inadequate validation during the entitlement verification process, allowing privilege escalation beyond the app's normal sandbox.

MitigationUpdate GarageBand to version 10.4.9 or later via the Mac App Store. This version includes improved validation of process entitlements and Team ID to prevent unauthorized privilege escalation.

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
GaragebandApplication
Affected:< 10.4.9

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
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed GarageBand version
    Open Finder, go to /Applications/, locate GarageBand, right-click and choose 'Get Info', or run: defaults read /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Info.plist CFBundleShortVersionString
    Affected if The displayed version is lower than 10.4.9 (e.g., 10.4.8, 10.4.7, etc.)
  2. Confirm version via command line
    Run: /usr/bin/defaults read /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Info.plist CFBundleShortVersionString
    Affected if The command outputs a version string less than 10.4.9 (compare numerically or alphabetically)
  3. Verify GarageBand executable exists
    Check that /Applications/GarageBand.app exists and is executable: ls -la /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/MacOS/GarageBand
    Affected if The application bundle is present and the executable exists, combined with a version below 10.4.9 from the previous checks

You are affected if GarageBand is installed and its version is earlier than 10.4.9, as the entitlement validation flaw only exists in those versions.

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 10.4.9 or later
Fixed in 10.4.9
Interim mitigation

Update GarageBand to version 10.4.9 or later via the Mac App Store. This version includes improved validation of process entitlements and Team ID to prevent unauthorized privilege escalation.

Recommended fix High confidence

GarageBand 10.4.9

  1. Open the Mac App Store on your Mac
  2. Click on the 'Updates' tab in the sidebar
  3. Look for GarageBand in the list of available updates
  4. Click 'Update' next to GarageBand to download and install version 10.4.9
  5. Alternatively, go to Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update to check for updates
  6. Restart your Mac if prompted to complete the installation

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

Fix this in Garageband Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $910
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,456.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-42867 — 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-2023-42867 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