Root privilege escalation via PID reuse race
Published May 28, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Incorrect authorization in Fortinet FortiClient for macOS allows local users to gain root privileges through crafted XPC messages. The privileged XPC listener resolves a client's PID to a signed executable path after connection, letting a process swap pass the Fortinet signature check. Existing local code execution is required; successful PID reuse permits arbitrary root-level XPC requests and a root-owned file write leading to root code execution.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect authorization in Fortinet FortiClient for macOS allows local users to gain root privileges through crafted XPC messages. The privileged XPC listener resolves a client's PID to a signed executable path after connection, letting a process swap pass the Fortinet signature check. Existing local code execution is required; successful PID reuse permits arbitrary root-level XPC requests and a root-owned file write leading to root code execution.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-25251
- Published
- May 28, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Fortinet
- Product
- FortiClient for macOS
- Classifications
- CWE-863, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 28, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 2026Record 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=7.0.0 <=7.0.14
- Affected versionversion=7.2.0 <=7.2.8
- Affected versionversion=7.4.0 <=7.4.2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Sonar FortiClientMac PID reuse proof of conceptfunctional · 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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