Root via race condition on Apple OS v26.3
CVE-2026-20617 Published on February 11, 2026
A race condition was addressed with improved state handling. This issue is fixed in watchOS 26.3, tvOS 26.3, macOS Tahoe 26.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, visionOS 26.3, iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3. An app may be able to gain root privileges.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-20617 can be exploited with local system access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.
Weakness Type
What is a Race Condition Vulnerability?
The program contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently.
CVE-2026-20617 has been classified to as a Race Condition vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-20617
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Affected Versions
Apple macOS:- Version unspecified and below 26.3 is affected.
- Version unspecified and below 26.3 is affected.
- Version unspecified and below 26.3 is affected.
- Version unspecified and below 14.8 is affected.
- Version unspecified and below 26.3 is affected.
- Version unspecified and below 26.3 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.