Threats / Apple / CVE-2020-27932
CVE-2020-27932
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Apple Multiple Products vulnerability
Type confusion vulnerability in Apple's operating systems allows malicious applications to execute code with kernel privileges, potentially compromising system security.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A type confusion flaw in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS enables privilege escalation from user-level application context to kernel execution. Active exploitation in the wild demonstrates practical attack viability.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-034EPSS 0.10337 (verify live)5CVSS 7.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
5 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.10337 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Apple, Multiple Products. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-843 Type Confusion — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 330 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious application that exploits type confusion in memory handling to trigger unexpected code paths.
Business
User device security is compromised as the application gains unauthorized kernel-level access.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I leverage kernel execution privileges to bypass security controls and modify system behavior without detection.
Business
Enterprise device management and security policies become ineffective, exposing sensitive data and systems.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I persist malicious code at the kernel level, surviving application uninstallation and OS updates.
Business
Long-term compromise of affected devices creates ongoing liability and potential regulatory violations.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05