CactusVPN through 6.0 for macOS suffers from a root privilege escalation vulnerability in its privileged helper tool. The privileged helper tool implements an XPC interface, which allows arbitrary applications to execute system commands as root.
This vulnerability carries a CRITICAL severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.8, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from cactusvpn, from apple organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
First disclosed in 2018, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.
2018-03-05T20:29:00.333
2024-11-21T04:12:14.383
Modified
CVSSv3.0: 9.8 (CRITICAL)
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
10.0
10.0
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version/Range | Vulnerable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application | cactusvpn | cactusvpn | ≤ 6.0 | Yes |
| Operating System | apple | macos | * | No |
SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For cactusvpn's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.