CVE-2026-43764

Apple · macOS

An integer overflow vulnerability exists in Apple macOS that may allow a malicious application to cause unexpected system termination.

Executive summary

A critical integer overflow vulnerability in Apple macOS allows unauthenticated attackers to trigger system-wide crashes, posing a severe risk to service availability.

Vulnerability

This is an integer overflow vulnerability resulting from improper input validation. The vulnerability is exploitable by an unauthenticated attacker via network-delivered content processed by an application, leading to a denial of service through system termination.

Business impact

The CVSS score of 9.8 reflects the high severity of this flaw, as it allows for total loss of system availability without requiring user interaction or authentication. Successful exploitation can lead to widespread service disruption, impacting business operations that rely on macOS infrastructure. Given the potential for remote execution of this crash, the impact on business continuity is substantial.

Remediation

Immediate Action: Update all affected systems to macOS Sequoia 15.7.8, macOS Sonoma 14.8.8, or macOS Tahoe 26.6 immediately.

Proactive Monitoring: Review system crash logs and application error reports for patterns indicating unexpected terminations that correlate with the introduction of untrusted network data.

Compensating Controls: While no direct virtual patch exists for this integer overflow, ensure that application-level sandboxing and endpoint security solutions are active to limit the interaction between network-exposed services and the underlying kernel.

Exploitation status

Public Exploit Available: No

Analyst recommendation

Due to the critical nature of this vulnerability and the potential for remote exploitation, IT administrators must prioritize the deployment of the specified macOS updates. Patching is the only effective way to remediate the underlying input validation error. Failure to apply these updates leaves systems exposed to potential denial of service attacks that could result in significant operational downtime.