CVE-2023-41036

Macvim's Insecure Usage of IPC Mechanisms

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: September 12, 2023 at 07:48 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:20 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsMacVimMacvim

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
PoC

Description

Macvim is a text editor for MacOS. Prior to version 178, Macvim makes use of an insecure interprocess communication (IPC) mechanism which could lead to a privilege escalation. Distributed objects are a concept introduced by Apple which allow one program to vend an interface to another program. What is not made clear in the documentation is that this service can vend this interface to any other program on the machine. The impact of exploitation is a privilege escalation to root - this is likely to affect anyone who is not careful about the software they download and use MacVim to edit files that would require root privileges. Version 178 contains a fix for this issue.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 178
Affected range stops below 178, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 178
Affected range stops below 178, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-269

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