CVE-2025-31231
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 · uneditedA permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.4. An app may be able to read sensitive location information.
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 confidenceA permissions issue in macOS allowed an application to bypass location services restrictions and read sensitive user location information without proper authorization. The vulnerability was addressed in macOS Sequoia 15.4 with additional permission restrictions.
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< 15.4CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check macOS versionOpen System Settings > General > About, or run 'sw_vers' in Terminal, or run 'system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType'Affected if The installed macOS version is earlier than 15.4 (such as 15.3, 15.2, 15.1, 15.0, or any earlier major version)
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Verify Location Services statusOpen System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, or run 'sudo defaults read /var/db/locationd/Library/Preferences/com.apple.locationd.plist'Affected if Location Services is enabled and the macOS version is below 15.4
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Review applications with location accessOpen System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and check the list of applications that have location accessAffected if Any application has been granted location access and the macOS version is below 15.4, as that app could have potentially bypassed authorization requirements
The environment is affected if the installed macOS version is earlier than 15.4, regardless of whether Location Services is currently enabled or which applications have location permissions.
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 · scoped15.4
Update to macOS Sequoia 15.4 or later. If this affects a third-party application, ensure the application has been updated by its vendor.
macOS Sequoia 15.4
- Back up your Mac using Time Machine before performing any system update
- Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions)
- Navigate to General > Software Update
- Wait for Apple to check for updates
- If macOS Sequoia 15.4 or later is available, click Update Now or Upgrade Now to download and install it
- Follow the on-screen instructions and allow the Mac to restart as needed
- After the update completes, verify the new version by going to System Settings > General > About and confirming the version number is 15.4 or later
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-31231 — 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-2025-31231 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