dbcve.org
macOSOperating system · Apple

CVE-2025-30457

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-31
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 13.7.5 / 14.7.5 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
This issue was addressed with improved validation of symlinks. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.4, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, macOS Ventura 13.7.5. A malicious app may be able to create symlinks to protected regions of the disk.

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 vulnerability in macOS allows a malicious application to create symlinks pointing to protected system regions of the disk. The flaw stems from insufficient validation of symlink targets during creation, potentially enabling privilege escalation or security boundary bypasses.

MitigationApply the macOS security updates (Ventura 13.7.5, Sonoma 14.7.5, or Sequoia 15.4) to patch the symlink validation flaw and prevent malicious apps from creating symlinks to protected disk regions.

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:< 13.7.5>= 14.0, < 14.7.5>= 15.0, < 15.4

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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

  1. Check installed macOS version
    Run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal to display the current macOS version number.
    Affected if The version is below 13.7.5, or between 14.0 and 14.7.4, or between 15.0 and 15.3.x.
  2. Verify security update installation
    Run 'system_profiler SPInstallHistorySoftwareDataType | grep -A2 "Security Update"' to list installed security updates.
    Affected if No security update matching 13.7.5, 14.7.5, or 15.4 is listed.
  3. Confirm patch via softwareupdate
    Run 'softwareupdate --history | grep -i security' to see the full history of installed security patches.
    Affected if The specific CVE-related security update (13.7.5, 14.7.5, or 15.4) does not appear in the output.

A user is affected if their macOS version falls within the vulnerable ranges and the corresponding security update has not been installed.

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 13.7.5 / 14.7.5 / 15.4 or later
Fixed in 13.7.514.7.515.4
Interim mitigation

Apply the macOS security updates (Ventura 13.7.5, Sonoma 14.7.5, or Sequoia 15.4) to patch the symlink validation flaw and prevent malicious apps from creating symlinks to protected disk regions.

Recommended fix High confidence

macOS Sequoia 15.4 (or macOS Sonoma 14.7.5 / macOS Ventura 13.7.5 depending on your current version)

  1. Back up important data before performing any system update
  2. Determine your current macOS version by clicking the Apple menu and selecting 'About This Mac'
  3. If running macOS Ventura 13.x, update to version 13.7.5 or later via System Settings > Software Update
  4. If running macOS Sonoma 14.x, update to version 14.7.5 or later via System Settings > Software Update
  5. If running macOS Sequoia 15.x, update to version 15.4 or later via System Settings > Software Update
  6. Alternatively, download the appropriate macOS installer from the Mac App Store and reinstall to ensure the security update is applied
Caveat Standard macOS update risks apply; ensure backups before updating

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

Fix this in macOS Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
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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-2025-30457 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