Apple XNU VFS kernel race condition privilege escalation
CVE-2025-43520 is a kernel memory corruption vulnerability affecting multiple Apple products, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. Apple’s advisory describes it as a memory corruption issue fixed with improved memory handling, with impact that a malicious application may cause unexpected system termination or write kernel memory. Supporting reporting further characterizes the flaw as a kernel-mode race condition in XNU’s virtual filesystem (VFS) implementation that can be exploited to obtain kernel memory read/write primitives. In DarkSword exploit-chain reporting, this bug is used in the final privilege-escalation stage after earlier sandbox escapes and is associated with full kernel compromise.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
42 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
One of six CVEs in the DarkSword iOS exploit chain affecting older iOS 18 devices and tracked by CISA as actively exploited.
One of six vulnerabilities leveraged by the DarkSword exploit kit targeting iPhones and iPads running iOS 18.x; significant because DarkSword is described as actively exploited and broadly deployed.
One of six iOS vulnerabilities used by the DarkSword exploit kit to target iPhones running iOS 18.4 through 18.7; Apple shipped fixes in security updates and later expanded iOS 18.7.7 availability to protect more devices.
A virtual filesystem race condition that grants full kernel memory read/write access as part of the DarkSword exploit chain.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.