Apple Patches CVE-2026-43760 Screen Sharing Flaw Granting Root Access on macOS

A vulnerability in the macOS Screen Sharing feature allows remote attackers to execute commands with root privileges under specific configurations. Identified as CVE-2026-43760 and tied to the screensharingd service, the flaw affects systems with Screen Sharing or Remote Management enabled alongside the legacy VNC password option. Attackers who know the VNC password can exploit unauthenticated account binding to retrieve protected files such as /etc/sudoers or write policies into /private/etc/sudoers.d. This grants non-privileged accounts passwordless sudo rights. The issue stems from VNC-authenticated connections not being mapped to specific macOS accounts while file-transfer components retain root privileges. Apple addressed the vulnerability in macOS Tahoe 26.6 and macOS Sonoma 14.8.8, both released on July 27, 2026.

BoletimSecTranslated from Portuguese

Read at source

A vulnerability in the Screen Sharing feature of macOS allows remote attackers to execute commands with root privileges on affected systems. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-43760, resides in the screensharingd service and impacts configurations where Screen Sharing or Remote Management is enabled together with the legacy option permitting VNC viewers to connect using a password.

Exploitation requires the attacker to know the configured VNC password. Because connections authenticated via the VNC mechanism are not bound to a specific macOS user account, file-transfer components continue to run with root privileges. Researchers demonstrated that an attacker could request protected system files such as /etc/sudoers or create new files inside normally restricted directories.

The ability to write files significantly increased the impact. An attacker could insert a policy file into /private/etc/sudoers.d and grant a non-administrative account the right to execute commands via sudo without providing a password.

The Apple security bulletin describes the impact as possible access to sensitive user data. The company released fixes for CVE-2026-43760 in macOS Tahoe 26.6 and macOS Sonoma 14.8.8 on July 27, 2026.

Meridian digestThe week's most consequential security stories, distilled into one briefing.See the digest

More in Vulnerabilities & Exploits

Telegram for Android Patches Voice Call Vulnerability Enabling Code Execution
Yandex Patches Millions of Stations After eMudhra Certificate Keys Compromised
Cisco ASA and FTD Face DoS Vulnerability in SSL VPN Already Exploited in the Wild