CVE-2026-12374
MEDIUM 6.4Improper certificate validation and a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in the PrivilegedHelperTool XPC service in Cato Client before v.5.13.1 on macOS allows a local authenticated attacker to escalate privileges to root via a self-signed certificate that bypasses the XPC caller verification and a symlink swap during package installation.
NO EXPLOITATION SIGNALS
No known exploitation, public exploit, or elevated probability at this time. Track for changes.
Exploitation likelihood
—EPSS not yet scored
○ In CISA KEV
○ Public exploit / PoC
Impact if exploited
6.4CVSS 4.0 · MEDIUM
- ConfidentialityHigh
- IntegrityHigh
- AvailabilityHigh
What an attacker needs
- ⚠Access: Requires local access to the host
- ⚠Privileges: Requires a low-privilege account
- ✓User interaction: No user interaction needed
- ✓Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable
- ⚠Requirements: Specific conditions must be present
✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it
Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-295: Improper certificate validation
- CWE-367
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/AU:Y/R:U/V:C/RE:L/U:Amber