CVE-2025-43348

Vulnerability

Overview CVE-2025-43348 is a logic issue in macOS that undermines Gatekeeper, the built-in security mechanism designed to ensure only trusted software runs. Apple addressed the flaw with improved validation in macOS Sequoia 15.7.2, macOS Sonoma 14.8.2, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 [1][2][3]. An attacker could craft a malicious app that exploits this flaw to bypass Gatekeeper bypass to execute arbitrary code without user approval.

Attack

Vector and Prerequisites Exploitation requires the victim to launch a specially crafted application, likely obtained through social engineering or by tricking the user into mounting a malicious disk image. The attack does not require no additional authentication beyond that normally present in macOS; the bypass occurs within Gatekeeper's logic when evaluating a downloaded app's signature [1][2][3].

Impact

A successful attack would allow an unsigned or untrusted app to run without triggering Gatekeeper warnings, potentially enabling malware installation, privilege escalation, or other unauthorized access to sensitive user data [3]. Because Gatekeeper is a cornerstone of macOS trust model, this bypass could be chained with other exploits to achieve deeper compromise.

Mitigation

Status Apple released security updates on November 3, 2025 for all affected operating system versions. Users should update macOS to Sequoia 15.7.2, Sonoma 14.8.2, or Tahoe 26.1 to remediate the issue [1][2]. No workarounds are documented; installing the updates is the only recommended mitigation.