CVE-2025-7779

Local · Local Multiple Products

A high-severity vulnerability has been identified in multiple products from the vendor "Local," designated as CVE-2025-7779.

Executive summary

A high-severity vulnerability has been identified in multiple products from the vendor "Local," designated as CVE-2025-7779. This flaw allows a local user with standard privileges to exploit an insecurely configured service and gain full administrative control over the affected system. Successful exploitation could lead to a complete system compromise, enabling an attacker to install malicious software, steal sensitive data, or disrupt operations.

Vulnerability

The vulnerability exists within the Cross-Process Communication (XPC) service component of the affected products. The XPC service, which runs with elevated privileges, fails to properly validate incoming connections and messages from client processes. An attacker with low-privileged access to the local system can craft a malicious message and send it to the vulnerable XPC service. Because the service does not sufficiently verify the client's identity or entitlements, it will execute the requested privileged operations on behalf of the attacker, leading to arbitrary code execution with system-level permissions.

Business impact

This vulnerability is rated as High severity with a CVSS score of 8.8. Exploitation by an attacker who has already gained an initial foothold on a system (e.g., through phishing or another vulnerability) would result in a complete loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. An attacker with administrative privileges can exfiltrate sensitive corporate data, install persistent malware such as ransomware or keyloggers, modify or delete critical system files, and use the compromised machine as a pivot point to launch further attacks across the internal network. The risk to the organization includes data breaches, significant operational disruption, and reputational damage.

Remediation

Immediate Action: The primary remediation is to apply the security updates provided by the vendor across all affected systems immediately. Prioritize patching on critical endpoints and servers. In addition, conduct a review of user permissions and access controls to ensure the principle of least privilege is enforced, which can limit an attacker's initial ability to run the code necessary to exploit this vulnerability.

Proactive Monitoring: Implement enhanced logging and monitoring on endpoints. Security teams should monitor for anomalous process behavior, such as low-privilege processes communicating with the vulnerable XPC service or unexpected processes being spawned with elevated (e.g., root) privileges. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions should be configured with rules to detect and alert on suspicious inter-process communication patterns and unauthorized modification of system files.

Compensating Controls: If immediate patching is not feasible, organizations should implement compensating controls. This includes deploying application whitelisting solutions to prevent unauthorized executables from running, thereby blocking an attacker's exploit code. Additionally, restricting user accounts to standard privileges and limiting their ability to install or execute new software can reduce the attack surface.

Exploitation status

Public Exploit Available: false

Analyst recommendation

Given the high CVSS score of 8.8, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to the organization. A local privilege escalation flaw is a critical link in an attack chain, allowing an intruder to move from a minor foothold to full system control. While this vulnerability is not currently listed on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, its severity warrants immediate action. We strongly recommend that all organizations identify affected assets and apply the vendor-supplied patches on an expedited basis to mitigate the risk of system compromise.