Threat Intelligence / CVE / CVE-2021-30860

CVE-2021-30860 — Apple macOS

CISA KEV
CVSS v3.1 7.8 (HIGH) · EPSS 75.9% (higher than 99.4% of all scored CVEs) · Priority 9/10 · Published 2021-08-24

As of 2025-10-21, CVE-2021-30860 is a HIGH-severity vulnerability in Apple macOS, CVSS v3.1 7.8, EPSS 75.9% (99.4th percentile). It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), with a US federal remediation deadline of 2021-11-17. Threadlinqs Intelligence links 4 tracked threat campaigns to CVE-2021-30860, most recently “Apple Expands On-Device Lock Screen Alerts for Mercenary Spyware Targets”.

Last updated: 2025-10-21

What is CVE-2021-30860?

An integer overflow was addressed with improved input validation. This issue is fixed in Security Update 2021-005 Catalina, iOS 14.8 and iPadOS 14.8, macOS Big Sur 11.6, watchOS 7.6.2. Processing a maliciously crafted PDF may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.

The record classifies CVE-2021-30860 under weakness class CWE-190. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires local access to the host, needs no prior authentication, needs a user to take an action first, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 3 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 1846 days ago.

Severity and exploitation probability

CVSS v3.1 base score
7.8 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS (FIRST)
75.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.4% of all scored CVEs
CISA KEV
Listed since 2021-11-03, federal remediation deadline 2021-11-17
Threadlinqs priority
9/10 — CISA KEV-listed, which Threadlinqs floors at 9
Published
2021-08-24, last modified 2025-10-21

Is CVE-2021-30860 being exploited?

CISA added CVE-2021-30860 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2021-11-17 under BOD 22-01. Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2021-30860 is publicly available. 3 public proof-of-concept repositories are tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 43 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

Affected products and versions

How to fix CVE-2021-30860

Vendor advisory: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212804. Because CVE-2021-30860 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2021-11-17. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.

Threat activity tracking CVE-2021-30860

4 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2021-30860, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, NVD, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on . This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Vendor advisory and patch

Mailing list and disclosure

Other references

Showing 11 of 15 recorded references.

Full detection coverage & IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2021-30860 are available via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier). View plans →

← all vulnerabilities · Markdown version · Threadlinqs Intelligence