Vulnerability in Apple macOS
CVE-2026-5843
The MLX inference backend in Docker Model Runner on macOS uses the MLX-LM library, which unconditionally imports and executes arbitrary Python files from model directories via the model_file configuration field in config.json. When a model's config.json specifies a model_file pointing to a Python file, MLX-LM uses importlib to load and execute it with no trust_remote_code gate or equivalent safety check. The MLX backend runs without sandboxing, resulting in arbitrary code execution on the Docker host as the Docker Desktop user. Any container on the Docker network can trigger this by calling the model-runner.docker.internal API to pull a malicious model from an attacker-controlled OCI registry and request inference.
EPSS: 0.002 (12.9th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.2 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Apple Macos
- Docker Desktop — versions 4.56.0
- Docker Docker_desktop
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- security@docker.com (release-notes, Release Notes)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-5843?
- CVE-2026-5843 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apple macOS, classified under Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere. CVSS score: 8.2/10. Published 2026-05-22.
- How severe is CVE-2026-5843?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.2 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2026-5843 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.