macOS Sandboxing Bypass via Symbolic Link Race (pre-26.3/14.8.4/18.7.5)
CVE-2026-20677 Published on February 11, 2026
A race condition was addressed with improved handling of symbolic links. This issue is fixed in macOS Tahoe 26.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, iOS 18.7.5 and iPadOS 18.7.5, visionOS 26.3, iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3. A shortcut may be able to bypass sandbox restrictions.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-20677 can be exploited with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. 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 critical as this vulnerability has a high impact to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of this component.
Weakness Type
What is a TOCTTOU Vulnerability?
The software checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check. This can cause the software to perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state. This weakness can be security-relevant when an attacker can influence the state of the resource between check and use. This can happen with shared resources such as files, memory, or even variables in multithreaded programs.
CVE-2026-20677 has been classified to as a TOCTTOU vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-20677
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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 14.8 is affected.
- Version unspecified and below 26.3 is affected.
- Version unspecified and below 18.7 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.