macOSOperating system · Apple

CVE-2024-40770

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-09-17
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 15.0 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
A permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15. A non-privileged user may be able to modify restricted network settings.

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

A permission bypass vulnerability in macOS Sequoia 15 allowed unprivileged users to modify restricted network settings due to insufficient authorization checks. The fix involved adding additional restrictions to enforce proper permission validation before allowing network configuration changes.

MitigationApply the macOS Sequoia 15 security update to patch the permission validation flaw and prevent non-privileged users from modifying restricted network settings.

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:< 15.0

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 installed macOS version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal or go to Apple menu > About This Mac to see the exact macOS version number
    Affected if The version is below 15.0 (any version of macOS before Sequoia)
  2. Verify current user privileges
    Run 'whoami' and 'id' in Terminal to see if the current user is an administrator or standard user
    Affected if A standard (non-admin) user account exists on the system who could potentially exploit this flaw
  3. Test restricted network settings access
    As a standard (non-admin) user, attempt to open System Settings > Network and try to modify advanced settings like DNS servers, proxy configuration, or custom network configurations
    Affected if A standard user can access and modify restricted network configuration options without being prompted for admin credentials
  4. Check for recent network configuration changes
    Run 'sudo system_profiler SPNetworkDataType' or check system logs with 'log show --predicate 'eventMessage contains "network"' --last 24h' for any unauthorized network configuration modifications
    Affected if Network settings were changed by an unprivileged user or at unexpected times

A system is affected if it runs macOS version below 15.0 and allows standard (non-admin) users to modify restricted network settings without authorization prompts.

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 15.0 or later
Fixed in 15.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the macOS Sequoia 15 security update to patch the permission validation flaw and prevent non-privileged users from modifying restricted network settings.

Recommended fix High confidence

macOS Sequoia 15.0

  1. Upgrade to macOS Sequoia 15.0 or later
  2. Open System Settings > General > Software Update
  3. Click 'Update Now' or 'Upgrade Now' to install macOS Sequoia 15.0
Caveat Major OS upgrade - review app compatibility and backup data before upgrading

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
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2024-40770 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