Affects widely used Apple OS families; allows forged certs enabling broad impersonation/MitM across consumer and enterprise devices.
CVE-2026-86881
Apple certificate validation flaw allows forged certs from compromised intermediate CAs.
Is CVE-2026-86881 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-86881 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.
How severe is CVE-2026-86881?
CVE-2026-86881 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.1. 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-2026-86881?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-86881. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-86881 affect?
CVE-2026-86881 affects iOS (pre-26.7/27 fixed), iPadOS (pre-26.7/27 fixed), macOS Golden Gate/Sequoia/Tahoe (pre-fixed), tvOS (pre-27 fixed), and 2 further products or versions. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-86881?
Install the listed Apple OS updates immediately
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
An attacker with a compromised intermediate CA can issue certificates with arbitrary EKUs to impersonate services, enable MitM, and bypass cert-based auth.
Immediate action required
- affected< 26.7
- affected< 27
- affected< 15.8
- affected< 26.7
- affected< 27
- affected< 27
- affected< 27
- affected< 27
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.