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Cybersecurity 2026-08-18 • Source: Ars Technica

Apple Issues Emergency macOS Patch to Fix Screen-Sharing Zero-Day Actively Exploited for Crypto Mining

Dillip Chowdary

Written by Dillip Chowdary

Senior Tech Editor & Systems Architect

Apple Issues Emergency macOS Patch to Fix Screen-Sharing Zero-Day Actively Exploited for Crypto Mining

Apple has released urgent security patches across macOS versions after researchers uncovered a zero-day vulnerability in Screen Sharing exploited by threat actors.

Flaw Architecture: Memory Corruption in ScreenSharing Daemon

Apple security team has issued emergency updates for macOS Tahoe, Sequoia, and Sonoma to address CVE-2026-65400, a critical remote code execution zero-day vulnerability in the macOS Screen Sharing daemon. Threat actors have been actively exploiting unpatched systems to silently install unauthorized cryptocurrency miners.

Cybersecurity researchers discovered that sending maliciously crafted network packets to open VNC or Screen Sharing ports allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication and execute root-level commands. Affected system owners reported unexplained CPU spikes and system sluggishness.

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Active Exploitation: Silent Deployment of Unauthorized Cryptominers

Apple strongly advises all Mac desktop and laptop users to update immediately to the latest OS builds to prevent unauthorized remote compromise.