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Mallory
High

Apple Kernel race condition leading to unexpected system termination

IdentifiersCVE-2026-28986CWE-362· Concurrent Execution using Shared…

CVE-2026-28986 is a kernel vulnerability in Apple operating systems caused by a race condition. Apple states the issue was addressed with additional validation. Successful exploitation by a local app may trigger unsafe concurrent kernel state handling and result in unexpected system termination. The available content does not identify the specific vulnerable kernel function or subsystem beyond the kernel component.

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For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

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ANALYST BRIEF

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.

A successful exploit may allow a locally running app to crash the operating system, causing unexpected system termination and denial of service. Based on the provided content, there is no confirmed evidence that this issue alone enables kernel memory disclosure, privilege escalation, or code execution.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Until patches can be applied, reduce exposure by limiting installation and execution of untrusted or unnecessary local apps, enforcing application control and least privilege, and restricting user ability to run arbitrary code. Because the described attack vector is a local app, there is no specific network-side mitigation indicated in the provided content.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the vendor fixes released by Apple. The issue is fixed in iOS 18.7.9 and iPadOS 18.7.9, iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5, macOS Sequoia 15.7.7, macOS Sonoma 14.8.7, macOS Tahoe 26.5, tvOS 26.5, and watchOS 26.5.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

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.

VendorProductType
AppleIpadosoperating_system
AppleIphone Osoperating_system
AppleMacosoperating_system
AppleTvosoperating_system
AppleWatchosoperating_system

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity8

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.