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Medium

Privilege Escalation via get-task-allow entitlement in MacVim.app

Type: advisorySources: OSV

MacVim's configuration on macOS, specifically the presence of entitlement "com.apple.security.get-task-allow", allows local attackers with unprivileged access (e.g. via a malicious application) to attach a debugger, read or modify the process memory, inject code in the application's context despite being signed with Hardened Runtime and bypass Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC). Acquired resource access is limited to previously granted permissions by the user. Access to other resources beyond granted permissions requires user interaction with a system prompt asking for permission. According to Apple documentation, when a non-root user runs an app with the debugging tool entitlement, the system presents an authorization dialog asking for a system administrator's credentials. Since there is no prompt when the target process has "get-task-allow" entitlement, the presence of this entitlement was decided to be treated as a vulnerability because it removes one step needed to perform an attack. This issue was fixed in build r181.2

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2025-8597
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
5 Nov 2026, 05:53 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

Privilege Escalation via get-task-allow entitlement in MacVim.app

core-osv · Original source

Published 26 Aug 2025, 12:23 UTC

MacVim's configuration on macOS, specifically the presence of entitlement "com.apple.security.get-task-allow", allows local attackers with unprivileged access (e.g. via a malicious application) to attach a debugger, read or modify the process memory, inject code in the application's context despite being signed with Hardened Runtime and bypass Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC). Acquired resource access is limited to previously granted permissions by the user. Access to other resources beyond granted permissions requires user interaction with a system prompt asking for permission. According to Apple documentation, when a non-root user runs an app with the debugging tool entitlement, the system presents an authorization dialog asking for a system administrator's credentials. Since there is no prompt when the target process has "get-task-allow" entitlement, the presence of this entitlement was decided to be treated as a vulnerability because it removes one step needed to perform an attack. This issue was fixed in build r181.2

osv:CVE-2025-8597
Complete source record
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  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-8597",
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    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Privilege Escalation via get-task-allow entitlement in MacVim.app",
    "summary": "MacVim's configuration on macOS, specifically the presence of entitlement \"com.apple.security.get-task-allow\", allows local attackers with unprivileged access (e.g. via a malicious application) to attach a debugger, read or modify the process memory, inject code in the application's context despite being signed with Hardened Runtime and bypass Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC). Acquired resource access is limited to previously granted permissions by the user. Access to other resources beyond granted permissions requires user interaction with a system prompt asking for permission. According to Apple documentation, when a non-root user runs an app with the debugging tool entitlement, the system presents an authorization dialog asking for a system administrator's credentials. Since there is no prompt when the target process has \"get-task-allow\" entitlement, the presence of this entitlement was decided to be treated as a vulnerability because it removes one step needed to perform an attack. This issue was fixed in build r181.2",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2025-8597",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
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      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:42.936730037Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://cert.pl/en/posts/2025/08/tcc-bypass/",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/8xxx/CVE-2025-8597.json",
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}