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.
References (4)
Core 4
Core References
Exploit, Vendor Advisory x_refsource_confirm
https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/security/advisories/GHSA-9jgj-jfwg-99fv
Patch x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/commit/399b43e9e1dbf656a1780e87344f4d3c875e4cda
Product x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/blob/d9de087dddadbfd82fcb5dc9734380a2f829bd0a/src/MacVim/MMAppController.h#L28
Various Sources x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/blob/d9de087dddadbfd82fcb5dc9734380a2f829bd0a/src/MacVim/MMBackend.h
Scores
CVSS v3
7.8
EPSS
0.0013
EPSS Percentile
31.6%
Attack Vector
LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA SSVC
Vulnrichment
Exploitation
poc
Automatable
no
Technical Impact
total
Details
CWE
CWE-269
Status
published
Products (1)
macvim/macvim
< 178
Published
Nov 07, 2023
Tracked Since
Feb 18, 2026