Vulnerability in Apple macOS
CVE-2026-49237
An issue was discovered in Canonical Multipass for macOS before version 1.16.3 due to an incomplete fix for CVE-2025-5199. While the patch in version 1.16.0 updated the ownership of the multipassd daemon binary to root:wheel, five co-located binaries (multipass, qemu-img, qemu-system-aarch64, qemu-system-x86_64, and sshfs_server) in /Library/Application Support/com.canonical.multipass/bin/ retain ownership by the installing user and remain writable. Because the root LaunchDaemon (com.canonical.multipassd.plist) configures a PATH environment variable that prioritizes this user-writable directory and invokes these auxiliary binaries by their bare names, a local attacker can replace an auxiliary binary (such as qemu-img) with a malicious wrapper. When the root daemon subsequently triggers the binary during routine execution (e.g., via multipass launch), the malicious code executes with root privileges, leading to local privilege escalation.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.002 (4.4th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 4th percentile — 4.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.001 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000
Affected products
- Apple macOS
- Canonical Multipass — versions 0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/canonical/multipass/security/advisories/GHSA-r2xg-x32f-23c5 (Exploit, vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-49237?
- CVE-2026-49237 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apple macOS, classified under Incorrect Default Permissions. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-05-28.
- How severe is CVE-2026-49237?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.