Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This is a local privilege escalation in GPG Suite's Libmacgpg installer helper. A person who already has local access to an affected Mac could potentially run commands as root through unsafe handling of an installer path argument. It is not described as a remote internet-facing vulnerability.
Executive priority
Treat as high priority for any remaining legacy macOS fleet exposure. The issue is old, but successful exploitation could give a local user root control. Patch or remove affected software where found.
Technical view
The CVE describes command execution as root in the installPackage function of the installerHelper subcomponent in Libmacgpg, due to shell metacharacter handling in the xmlPath argument. Sources identify GPG Suite versions before 2015.06 as affected. No CVSS, CWE, or CPE data is provided in the bundle.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on macOS systems running GPG Suite with Libmacgpg before 2015.06. Business risk is highest on shared workstations, developer machines, or systems where untrusted local users can authenticate.
Exploitation context
The provided sources support local privilege escalation only. They do not show remote exploitation, public exploitation in the wild, or CISA KEV listing. An attacker would need local access before abusing the flaw.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE description and linked advisories. The bundle does not include CVSS, CWE, CPE, exploit maturity, or detailed patch notes. Avoid assuming modern GPG Suite versions are affected beyond the stated pre-2015.06 range.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade GPG Suite or Libmacgpg to 2015.06 or later.
- Remove legacy GPG Suite installations where no longer required.
- Prioritize shared Macs and developer endpoints for remediation.
- Restrict untrusted local account access until affected systems are updated.
- Check vendor release notes for any additional historical guidance.
Validation and detection
- Inventory macOS endpoints for GPG Suite and Libmacgpg installations.
- Confirm installed versions are not earlier than 2015.06.
- Identify systems with the installerHelper subcomponent present.
- Review endpoint logs for suspicious local privilege escalation activity.
- Confirm remediation through software inventory after update or removal.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2014-4677 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://bierbaumer.net/security/cve-2014-4677/CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://gpgtools.org/releases/gpgsuite/2015.08/release-notes.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.