macOS Weaknesses Chained to Silently Disable Endpoint Security Agents

Summary

XM Cyber has demonstrated a novel attack chain on macOS that enables a standard, non-administrative user to silently disable endpoint security tools like EDR and MDM agents. This technique abuses legitimate macOS behavior, specifically the persistence of the kernel's code-signing trust cache, to inject malicious payloads and invoke privileged XPC methods without triggering alerts or requiring kernel exploits. The attack successfully targeted CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor and Kandji MDM, with CrowdStrike issuing a bug bounty and Kandji releasing a patch.

Full text

Cybersecurity firm XM Cyber has demonstrated a macOS attack technique that allows a standard, non-administrative user account to silently disable enterprise endpoint security tools, including EDR and MDM agents, without triggering alerts or requiring kernel exploits. Some of the underlying primitives, including the abuse of weakly-validated XPC connections and the injection of malicious payloads into application Interface Builder (NIB) files, have been publicly documented by security researchers for years and partially addressed by Apple. However, the research introduces a novel chain that exploits the persistence of the kernel’s code-signing trust cache after a legitimately signed application executes, allowing an attacker to inject a malicious payload that impersonates a trusted app component and silently invokes privileged XPC methods. The cybersecurity company noted that the attack technique abuses legitimate macOS behavior rather than software vulnerabilities. The technique was successfully demonstrated against CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor, which was fully unloaded from a standard user account, and against Kandji MDM, which was permanently deactivated via a two-stage chain. The Kandji exploit cleared the EDR guards and terminated the Endpoint Security Framework extension, XM Cyber said. According to the security firm, CrowdStrike has paid a bug bounty and added detection, while Kandji has patched the issue and assigned CVE-2026-39118 to the flaw. A third, unnamed enterprise EDR vendor was also successfully targeted and is working on a patch. Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading. XM Cyber researcher Hillel Pinto will be releasing an open source discovery tool called XPC Hunter, which automates the identification of exploitable XPC privilege escalation surfaces across all installed macOS applications, with a full presentation planned for Black Hat US in August 2026. SecurityWeek has reached out to Apple, CrowdStrike, and Kandji for comment and will update this article if they provide any clarifications. Related: New Exploit Bypasses Apple’s Boot Defenses, Affects Millions of iPhones Related: More Cybersecurity Firms Disclose Impact From Klue Hack Related: BeyondTrust, LastPass Impacted by Klue-Salesforce Incident Written By Eduard Kovacs Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is senior managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher before starting a career in journalism in 2011. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering. Daily Briefing Newsletter Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing for the latest cybersecurity threats, trends, and expert insights. More from Eduard Kovacs Dragos Unveils AI for OT Security Algerian Man Extradited to US for Running Cybercrime MarketplacesTrump Signs Executive Order Accelerating Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration Xsolis Data Breach Affects 1.4 Million IndividualsDecades-Old Squid Proxy Flaw ‘Squidbleed’ Can Expose User DataNew Exploit Bypasses Apple’s Boot Defenses, Affects Millions of iPhonesTexas Parks & Wildlife Data Breach Affects 3 Million IndividualsCisco to Acquire WideField Security to Boost Splunk’s Agentic SOC Latest News Third DraftKings Hacker Sentenced to 18 Months in PrisonCritical Ubiquiti Vulnerabilities in Attackers’ CrosshairsAgentic AI Security: Wrong Context, Wrong Decisions at Machine SpeedNew ‘Mistic’ RAT Opens Door to Several Ransomware FamiliesExploitable CI/CD Vulnerabilities Expose Millions of Repositories to HijackingBeyondTrust, LastPass Impacted by Klue-Salesforce IncidentWebinar Today: Modern Exposure Validation in the AI EraHackers Exploiting Cisco Unified CM Vulnerability Trending Daily Briefing NewsletterSubscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts. Webinar: How Modern Breaches Bypass MFA and Evade Detection June 17, 2026 Today’s attackers are no longer breaking in — they’re logging in. Join this live webinar as we break down the modern identity attack chain and examine how recent breaches exploited weaknesses in authentication, identity verification, and access management processes. Register Webinar: Modern Exposure Validation in the AI Era June 24, 2026 AI has accelerated both sides of the fight. Adversaries are weaponizing vulnerabilities faster, while defenders are racing to ship detections and configurations. Join this live webinar as we explore how to prove your controls actually hold against new threats, map your security maturity, and unite breach simulation with automated pentesting into a single, coordinated program. Register People on the MoveSolarWinds has appointed Justin Henkel as Chief Information Security Officer.J. Paul Haynes has joined Cinchy as Chief Executive Officer.Hatem Naguib has become Chief Executive Officer at Sysdig.More People On The MoveExpert Insights What the Latest ShinyHunters Breaches Reveal About Modern Cyberattacks Groups like ShinyHunters are demonstrating that attackers do not necessarily need malware or zero-day exploits to cause massive damage. (Torsten George) No Exploits Required Four decades of incident response experience suggest that exploits are often the symptom, not the root cause, of today’s cybersecurity failures. (Tod Beardsley) After AI Reaches Production: 12 Ways Security Teams Can Take Control Security teams need more than visibility into AI applications, they need a repeatable framework for monitoring, investigating, and defending them in production. (Joshua Goldfarb) Everybody Is Vibe Coding But Nobody Told the Security Team AI-driven development is not something organizations can or should block. But it must be governed. (Danelle Au) The Zero-Knowledge Threat Actor and the End of Responsible Disclosure AI can help attackers generate malware, create malicious payloads, bypass simple security checks, and convert vague malicious intent into functional code. (Etay Maor) Flipboard Reddit Whatsapp Whatsapp Email

Indicators of Compromise

• cve — CVE-2026-39118

Entities