CVE-2026-86819 Waves Central local privilege escalation via Improper XPC Client Authentication in macOS
A local attacker can escalate privileges to root by exploiting improper XPC client authentication in the Waves Central macOS helper service.
- 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-2026-86819?
CVE-2026-86819 is a high-severity vulnerability in Waves Central, published on 8 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Waves Central for macOS contains a local privilege escalation in the privileged helper service. The helper authorizes connecting XPC clients by comparing the caller's code-signing certificate chain for equality with its own, rather than validating the caller against a pinned code requirement (application identifier and Team ID). A local, authenticated user can execute code within the vendor-signed process, satisfy the helper's client check, and cause the helper to execute a script with root privileges. Fixed in 17.0.
Weakness: CWE-862
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-86819?
How do I fix CVE-2026-86819?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-86819 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-86819 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-86819 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-pvv8-qxr5-pq93.