CVE-2025-43266: 
macOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A permissions issue in NSSpellChecker component was discovered affecting multiple versions of macOS. The vulnerability (CVE-2025-43266) was reported by Noah Gregory and fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.7, and macOS Ventura 13.7.7, released on July 29, 2025. The vulnerability could allow an app to break out of its sandbox (Apple Support).

The vulnerability was identified as a permissions issue in the NSSpellChecker component that required additional restrictions to remediate. The issue received a CVSS 3.1 Base Score of 5.1 (MEDIUM) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource) (NVD).

The primary impact of this vulnerability is that it could allow a malicious application to break out of its sandbox environment, potentially gaining access to resources and data that should be restricted. This represents a significant security boundary bypass that could compromise the system's security model (Apple Support).

The vulnerability requires local access (AV:L) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no privileges required (PR:N). No user interaction (UI:N) is needed to exploit this vulnerability, making it relatively straightforward to exploit if an attacker can get their code to run on the target system (NVD).

Apple has addressed this vulnerability by implementing additional restrictions in the NSSpellChecker component. The fix is available in macOS Sequoia 15.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.7, and macOS Ventura 13.7.7. Users are advised to update their systems to these versions or later to mitigate the vulnerability (Apple Support).