Affects widely used macOS OS; privilege escalation could disrupt endpoints across organizations.
CVE-2026-28821
macOS entitlement validation flaw allows privilege escalation.
Is CVE-2026-28821 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-28821 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.21% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-28821?
CVE-2026-28821 is rated High with a CVSS score of 8.4. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-28821?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-28821. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-28821 affect?
CVE-2026-28821 affects macOS Sequoia, macOS Sonoma, macOS Tahoe. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-28821?
Apply latest macOS updates (Sequoia 15.7.5, Sonoma 14.8.5, Tahoe 26.4).
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Allows attacker to gain elevated privileges on macOS by abusing entitlement validation.
Patch when possible
- affected< 14.8.5
- affected< 15.7.5
- affected< 26.4
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.