Certificate Validation Bypass in Apple iOS and macOS

Publication date: 2026-09-14

Last updated on: 2026-09-14

Assigner: Apple Inc.

Description

A certificate validation issue was addressed with improved certificate validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 26.7 and iPadOS 26.7, iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, macOS Tahoe 26.7, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, watchOS 27. An attacker with a compromised intermediate certificate authority may be able to issue certificates with arbitrary extended key usages.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

Probability:
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Meta Information

Published

2026-09-14

Last Modified

2026-09-14

Generated

2026-09-15

AI Q&A

2026-09-15

EPSS Evaluated

N/A

NVD

CVE-2026-86881

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
apple	ios	26.7
apple	ipad_os	26.7
apple	ios	27
apple	ipad_os	27
apple	macos_golden_gate	27
apple	macos_sequoia	15.8
apple	macos_tahoe	26.7
apple	tv_os	27
apple	vision_os	27
apple	watch_os	27

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability is a certificate validation issue where an attacker with control over a compromised intermediate certificate authority could issue certificates with arbitrary extended key usages. This bypasses normal certificate checks, potentially allowing malicious certificates to be trusted by affected systems.

Impact Analysis

If exploited, this vulnerability could allow an attacker to impersonate trusted websites or services, intercept encrypted communications, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks. Users of affected Apple devices might unknowingly connect to malicious servers that appear legitimate due to the forged certificates.

Mitigation Strategies

Update affected Apple devices to the latest versions mentioned in the CVE description to address the certificate validation issue.

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