CVE-2020-25533
An issue was discovered in Malwarebytes before 4.0 on macOS. A malicious application was able to...
An issue was discovered in Malwarebytes before 4.0 on macOS. A malicious application was able to perform a privileged action within the Malwarebytes launch daemon. The privileged service improperly validated XPC connections by relying on the PID instead of the audit token. An attacker can construct a situation where the same PID is used for running two different programs at different times, by leveraging a race condition during crafted use of posix_spawn.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges needed
- Low
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
An issue was discovered in Malwarebytes before 4.0 on macOS. A malicious application was able to perform a privileged action within the Malwarebytes launch daemon. The privileged service improperly validated XPC connections by relying on the PID instead of the audit token. An attacker can construct a situation where the same PID is used for running two different programs at different times, by leveraging a race condition during crafted use of posix_spawn.
- Record
CVE-2020-25533- CVSS 3.1
- 7.0 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 6.9 Medium
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C - Weakness
- CWE-362
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
An issue was discovered in Malwarebytes before 4.0 on macOS. A malicious application was able to perform a privileged action within the Malwarebytes launch daemon. The privileged service improperly validated XPC connections by relying on the PID instead of the audit token. An attacker can construct a situation where the same PID is used for running two different programs at different times, by leveraging a race condition during crafted use of posix_spawn.
- Record
CVE-2020-25533- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-18218 No score
An issue was discovered in Malwarebytes before 4.0 on macOS. A malicious application was able to perform a privileged action within the Malwarebytes launch daemon. The privileged service improperly validated XPC connections by relying on the PID instead of the audit token. An attacker can construct a situation where the same PID is used for running two different programs at different times, by leveraging a race condition during crafted use of posix_spawn.
- Record
EUVD-2020-18218- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-p523-j8f3-523j No score
An issue was discovered in Malwarebytes before 4.0 on macOS. A malicious application was able to...
An issue was discovered in Malwarebytes before 4.0 on macOS. A malicious application was able to perform a privileged action within the Malwarebytes launch daemon. The privileged service improperly validated XPC connections by relying on the PID instead of the audit token. An attacker can construct a situation where the same PID is used for running two different programs at different times, by leveraging a race condition during crafted use of posix_spawn.
- Record
GHSA-p523-j8f3-523j- Weakness
- CWE-362
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2020-25533 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.0) in Malwarebytes, published January 15, 2021. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.27%, the 19th percentile. No source names a fixed version.