An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. macOS High Sierra before Security Update 2017-001 is affected. The issue involves the "Directory Utility" component. It allows attackers to obtain administrator access without a password via certain interactions involving entry of the root user name.
CVE-2017-13872
“▲” beside the score: it is higher than NVD's CVSS score.
Score elevated to 8.2 because EPSS predicted 37% probability of exploitation within the next 30 days (98th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs) when EchelonGraph scored this CVE. NVD baseline CVSS 8.1 retained for reference. Confidence: see factors.
- Public exploit code is available (Metasploit, Exploit-DB, marked verified by Exploit-DB)
An upstream fix is merged but not yet released — mitigate (WAF / firewall / segmentation) until the release ships, then apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 8.1
- EG Score
- 8.2HIGHhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 63EG Risk 63/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity82% × 45%The EG Score, 8.2 of 10.Exploitation65% × 40%EchelonGraph's fixed weight for EG-KEV Tier 2 (Weaponized): a constant, not a probability.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's BOD 26-04 default: no one has published Automatable for this CVE, and CISA treats it as “no” for a CVE not in KEV.SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.Exploitation public PoC (exploit code on record) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). EchelonGraph holds no SSVC assessment of this CVE from CISA: none of these inputs is from Vulnrichment. EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: An upstream fix is merged but not yet in a tagged release. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high until it ships, then apply the release. - EPSS PROB
- 37%
- EPSS %ILE
- 98th
- KEV
- Not listed
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.
An upstream fix is merged but not yet in a tagged release. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high until it ships, then apply the release.
Exploitation public PoC (exploit code on record) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). EchelonGraph holds no SSVC assessment of this CVE from CISA: none of these inputs is from Vulnrichment. EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.
In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). Where an input reads “CISA's BOD 26-04 default”, no one has published it for this CVE, and CISA's implementation guidance says: “If “Automatable” and “Technical Impact” information items about a CVE ID are not available and the CVE ID is not in the KEV Catalog, CISA will treat its values as “no” and “total,” respectively, until CISA or a third party provides metadata about the CVE ID. CISA will always provide the Vulnrichment data for a CVE ID listed in the KEV Catalog.” Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
Published
November 29, 2017
Last Modified
June 17, 2026
Advisory Details (9)
Auto-updated Sep 13, 2026Apple's MacOS High Sierra Update Reintroduces "Root" Bug For Some Users | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/macos-update-undoes-apple-root-bug-patch/Apple macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra) - 'Blank Root' Local Privilege Escalation - macOS local Exploit
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/43248/Apple macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra) - 'Blank Root' Local Privilege Escalation (Metasploit) - macOS local Exploit
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/43201/About the security content of macOS High Sierra 10.13.2, Security Update 2017-002 Sierra, and Security Update 2017-005 El Capitan - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/HT208331About the security content of Security Update 2017-001 - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/HT208315Implement ARD auth and add remote CVE-2017-13872 (iamroot) module
Fix merged in rapid7/metasploit-framework PR #9302 on 2017-12-28 — awaiting tagged release
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/pull/9302macOS bug lets you log in as admin with no password required - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/macos-bug-lets-you-log-in-as-admin-with-no-password-required/Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 8× in last 7d / 19× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 89 of 110 refreshes on record for this CVE.
A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 11 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 21 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.
- 2026-10-12 00:57 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 13:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-10-10 19:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-10-09 20:02 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-10-08 16:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-10-07 23:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-10-06 15:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-10-05 17:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-10-03 14:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-30 14:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-30 09:27 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-27 13:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-26 15:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-24 13:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-19 15:36 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-18 19:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-17 19:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-15 03:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-12 14:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-11 09:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-10 09:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-04 13:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-04 05:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-02 14:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-09-01 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
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- 2026-09-01 03:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-30 19:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-28 21:36 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 35% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-27 14:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-26 14:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-25 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-24 14:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-21 23:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-20 22:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-19 16:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-18 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-16 14:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-16 02:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-15 01:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-13 21:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-08 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-07 16:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-06 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-05 19:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-04 15:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-08-01 04:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-30 16:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-28 15:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-25 14:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-23 01:27 UTCEG score recompute▲ 0.10
- 2026-07-22 22:06 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-21 15:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-18 10:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-15 16:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-15 01:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-13 06:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-12 05:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-08 15:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-06 16:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-06 02:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-07-01 15:02 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-29 14:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 37% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-14 23:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 77% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 77% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-11 13:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 77% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-10 22:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 77% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 77% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-07 15:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 77% · 98th percentile
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 77% · 98th percentile
Publicly available exploits
(4 references)Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (2 Metasploit modules, 2 Exploit-DB entries). The fix is not yet in a release, so defenders should restrict or isolate affected systems accordingly until it ships.
- Metasploitauxiliary/scanner/vnc/ard_root_pw✓ verifiedPublished Dec 28, 2017
Apple Remote Desktop Root Vulnerability
Open source ↗ - Metasploitexploit/osx/local/root_no_password✓ verifiedPublished Dec 8, 2017
Mac OS X Root Privilege Escalation
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-43201✓ verifiedPublished Nov 30, 2017
Apple macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra) - 'Blank Root' Local Privilege Escalation (Metasploit)
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-43248✓ verifiedPublished Nov 28, 2017
Apple macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra) - 'Blank Root' Local Privilege Escalation
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same CWE)
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-287
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2017-13872?
When was CVE-2017-13872 made public?
Is CVE-2017-13872 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2017-13872?
How do I remediate CVE-2017-13872?
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2017-13872
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