Root Privilege Escalation in Apple PackageKit
CVE-2026-28840 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Apple PackageKit affecting macOS Sonoma and macOS Sequoia. Apple describes the issue as a permissions issue and states that exploitation may allow an app to gain root privileges. The vulnerability was addressed by adding additional restrictions. The available content does not disclose the specific vulnerable function, code path, or exploitation mechanism beyond the fact that PackageKit's permission handling was insufficient.
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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
9 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A privilege escalation vulnerability in PackageKit that may allow an app to gain root privileges.
A privilege escalation vulnerability in macOS Sonoma that may allow an app to gain root privileges due to a permissions issue.
A privilege escalation vulnerability in macOS Sequoia caused by a permissions issue that may allow an app to gain root privileges.
A privilege escalation vulnerability in macOS Sequoia caused by a permissions issue that may allow an app to gain root privileges.
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.