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Threats / Apple / CVE-2021-1782
CVE-2021-1782 · EUVD no mirror located · GCVE no mirror located Verified 2026-06-22

Apple Multiple Products vulnerability

A race condition in Apple's operating systems allows malicious applications to escalate privileges through timing-based exploitation of synchronization flaws.

Verdict

Today item — known-exploited.

This race condition vulnerability enables local privilege escalation when a malicious app exploits timing windows in system resource access. The vulnerability has been observed in active exploitation, though not associated with ransomware campaigns.

CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-033EPSS 0.02222 (verify live)4Exploit Public PoC5
01

Is it exploitable?

— the evidence, ranked above the score
Exploit available
Public proof-of-concept exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
6 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
CISA KEV ↗Confirmed
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.02222 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Apple, Multiple Products. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
NVD ↗Reported
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-362 Race Condition, CWE-667 CWE-667.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
NVD ↗Reported
02

Who’s exploiting it?

— attribution turns risk into urgency
Attribution not established

No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.

03

Why it matters

— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board
1

Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1

Attacker
I distribute a malicious application through official or third-party app stores to reach target devices.
Business
User trust in application distribution channels is undermined; device security perimeter is compromised at the application layer.
2

Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2

Attacker
I identify and exploit the race condition window in system resource access to elevate my application's privileges beyond intended sandbox restrictions.
Business
Application sandboxing controls fail to contain malicious code, exposing system-level resources and user data to compromise.
3

Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3

Attacker
With elevated privileges, I access sensitive system functions, user data, and protected resources that should remain restricted.
Business
Confidentiality and integrity of user information and system operations are compromised across affected device platforms.
04

What to do

— defensible action
  • Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05

Coverage & confidence

— what we know, and what we don’t

Established (cited)

  • KEV listing (CISA)
  • EPSS probability (FIRST)
  • Public PoC available (VulnCheck)
  • 6 reported-exploitation source(s)
  • CWE weakness mapping (NVD)
  • Public exploit availability
  • Catalogued by apple (CNA)
  • Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden

  • No EUVD / GCVE mirror in feed — single-authority dependency for the identifier.
  • EPSS & exposure are time-varying; verify live at the source.
  • Threat-actor attribution not established from feed data — absence of a name is not absence of compromise.
  • No finder/reporter credit recorded in the public CVE entry — the work behind this find is unattributed.
  • Disclosure & credit2
    Catalogued by appleCNA
    Credited with finding itNo finder named in the public CVE record — the work behind this find is unattributed.