What is CVE-2020-9990?

CVE-2020-9990 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apple macOS, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2020-10-22.

How severe is CVE-2020-9990?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Apple macOS

CVE-2020-9990

A race condition was addressed with additional validation. This issue is fixed in macOS Catalina 10.15.6. A malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.

Vulnerability class: Race Condition

Published 2020-10-22 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (14.6th percentile), scored 2026-10-02.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 15th percentile — 14.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Apple macOS — versions unspecified
Apple Mac OS X

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-362 — Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition)

References

support.apple.com/kb/HT211289 (Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-9990?: CVE-2020-9990 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apple macOS, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2020-10-22.
How severe is CVE-2020-9990?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.