Threats / Apple / CVE-2021-30657
CVE-2021-30657
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Apple macOS vulnerability
Apple macOS System Preferences contains a logic issue allowing malicious applications to bypass Gatekeeper security checks.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A logic flaw in macOS System Preferences enables attackers to circumvent Gatekeeper protections, permitting unauthorized code execution. The vulnerability has been exploited in the wild and carries high exploitation likelihood.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit 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
3 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).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.68531 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Apple, macOS. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-862 Missing Authorization — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution 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 board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious application that exploits the System Preferences logic flaw to bypass Gatekeeper validation.
Business
Unauthorized code execution on user systems undermines macOS security posture and customer trust in platform protections.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I distribute the application through social engineering or compromised channels, relying on Gatekeeper bypass to execute without user warnings.
Business
Widespread infection potential increases incident response costs and liability exposure across the user base.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I establish persistence and lateral movement within compromised systems to exfiltrate data or deploy secondary payloads.
Business
Data breaches and system compromise lead to regulatory penalties, customer notification obligations, and reputational damage.
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