# CVE-2024-36486: Privilege escalation in Parallels Desktop for Mac

> An attacker can escalate privileges by exploiting a hard link vulnerability in the virtual machine archive restoration process of Parallels Desktop for Mac.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Jun 2025
- **Updated:** 3 Jun 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w3cx-68mp-rwcw

## What is CVE-2024-36486?

CVE-2024-36486 is a high-severity vulnerability in Parallels Parallels Desktop, published on 3 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the virtual machine archive restoration functionality of Parallels Desktop for Mac version 20.1.1 (55740). When an archived virtual machine is restored, the prl_vmarchiver tool decompresses the file and writes the content back to its original location using root privileges. An attacker can exploit this process by using a hard link to write to an arbitrary file, potentially resulting in privilege escalation.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access), CWE-62 (UNIX Hard Link)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-36486?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Parallels Parallels Desktop.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-36486?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-36486 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-36486 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-36486 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in Parallels Parallels Desktop

- [CVE-2025-31359](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-31359/): Path traversal in Parallels Desktop for Mac (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-34864](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-34864/): Privilege escalation in Desktop (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-31420](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31420/): Memory corruption in Desktop (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-31424](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31424/): Memory corruption in Desktop (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-31425](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31425/): Integer overflow in Desktop (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-36486 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-36486 is a high-severity vulnerability in Parallels Parallels Desktop, published on 3 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-36486 exists.

Affected product: Parallels Parallels Desktop. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-36486/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-36486/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-36486
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-36486
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-36486

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-36486/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.