Service interruption via DCERPC buffer use-after-free
Published May 8, 2023 · Updated Nov 4, 2025
Use-after-free in Apple macOS Ventura before 13.3 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt dcerpc via crafted DCERPC packets. The receive_dispatch state machine frees a packet backing buffer after an event action has already freed it, then dereferences the stale deallocator pointer. Network reachability requires SMB authentication, while local users can reach the same flaw through /var/rpc/ncalrpc sockets; malformed packet sequences can crash the service.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Apple macOS Ventura before 13.3 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt dcerpc via crafted DCERPC packets. The receive_dispatch state machine frees a packet backing buffer after an event action has already freed it, then dereferences the stale deallocator pointer. Network reachability requires SMB authentication, while local users can reach the same flaw through /var/rpc/ncalrpc sockets; malformed packet sequences can crash the service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-28180
- Published
- May 8, 2023
- Updated
- Nov 4, 2025
- Vendor
- Apple
- Product
- macOS
- Classifications
- CWE-457, T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 8, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 4, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=unspecified <13.3
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
- Cisco Talos DCERPC packet-sequence proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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