CVE-2018-4042
Description
An exploitable privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the helper service of Clean My Mac X, version 4.04, due to improper input validation. An attacker with local access could exploit this vulnerability to modify the file system as root.
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
Clean My Mac X 4.04 helper service fails to validate input in removeLaunchdAgentAtPath, allowing local attackers to delete arbitrary files as root.
Vulnerability
An exploitable privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the helper service of Clean My Mac X version 4.04 due to improper input validation (CWE-19) in the removeLaunchdAgentAtPath function of the helper protocol [1]. The service runs as root and is intended to manage launch agents. However, it does not properly validate the path argument before calling removeItemAtPath:error: with user-supplied input. The code contains a special case that only checks if the input equals a hardcoded path for com.macpaw.CleanMyMac4.Agent.plist; any other path bypasses the check and is passed directly to +[CMLaunchdManager removeAgentAtPath:] which performs the deletion without additional validation [1].
Exploitation
An attacker with local access (non-root) can exploit this vulnerability by calling the vulnerable helper service method with an arbitrary path to a file or directory on the filesystem. No authentication or user interaction is required beyond the ability to communicate with the helper service. The helper runs with root privileges, so any path passed by the attacker is deleted as root [1].
Impact
Successful exploitation allows the attacker to delete arbitrary files and directories on the system as root, leading to denial of service, system instability, or potential privilege escalation by removing critical system files or security controls. The CVSSv3 score is 7.1 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N), with high integrity impact and no confidentiality impact [1].
Mitigation
As of the publication date (2019-01-10), no official patched version had been released by MacPaw for Clean My Mac X. The vendor was notified via Cisco Talos, but the vulnerability report indicates that the issue was not addressed at the time of disclosure [1]. Users should monitor for updates or consider removing the helper service if not needed. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as of this writing.
AI Insight generated on May 26, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.
Affected products
1- Range: = 4.04
Patches
0No patches discovered yet.
Vulnerability mechanics
Root cause
"Improper input validation in the helper service allows any local application to delete arbitrary launchd agents as root."
Attack vector
An attacker with local access can call the `removeLaunchdAgentAtPath` function in the helper service, which runs as root, without any authentication or authorization check [ref_id=1]. The function only validates that the supplied path is not the CleanMyMac agent itself, but does not restrict which other launchd agents may be removed [ref_id=1]. By passing the path of any other launchd agent, the attacker can cause the root-privileged helper to delete that agent, crossing a privilege boundary [ref_id=1].
Affected code
The vulnerability resides in the `removeLaunchdAgentAtPath` function of the helper service protocol. The code at [0] accepts user input without validation, and at [1] only checks whether the input equals a hardcoded string for the CleanMyMac agent. If the check fails, execution falls through to [2] where `removeAgentAtPath:` is called with the unvalidated user input, allowing deletion of arbitrary launchd agents.
What the fix does
The advisory states the vendor patched the vulnerability on 2018-12-27, but no patch diff is included in the bundle [ref_id=1]. The remediation would require adding proper authorization checks to verify the calling application is authorized to remove launchd agents, and validating that the supplied path is within an allowed set of paths rather than only checking for a single hardcoded exclusion [ref_id=1].
Preconditions
- networkAttacker must have local access to the macOS system
- authNo authentication or authorization is required to call the helper service function
Generated on May 25, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.
References
1- www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2018-0716mitrex_refsource_MISC
News mentions
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