CVE-2025-8597 Privilege Escalation via get-task-allow entitlement in MacVim.app
Local attackers can bypass security controls to inject code and escalate privileges in MacVim due to a debugging entitlement.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-8597?
CVE-2025-8597 is a medium-severity vulnerability in MacVim, published on 26 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
MacVim's configuration on macOS, specifically the presence of entitlement "com.apple.security.get-task-allow", allows local attackers with unprivileged access (e.g. via a malicious application) to attach a debugger, read or modify the process memory, inject code in the application's context despite being signed with Hardened Runtime and bypass Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC). Acquired resource access is limited to previously granted permissions by the user. Access to other resources beyond granted permissions requires user interaction with a system prompt asking for permission.
According to Apple documentation, when a non-root user runs an app with the debugging tool entitlement, the system presents an authorization dialog asking for a system administrator's credentials. Since there is no prompt when the target process has "get-task-allow" entitlement, the presence of this entitlement was decided to be treated as a vulnerability because it removes one step needed to perform an attack.
This issue was fixed in build r181.2
Weakness: CWE-497
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-8597?
How do I fix CVE-2025-8597?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-8597 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2025-8597 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-8597 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-fr79-fj3v-59wf.