A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-25364, was discovered in Speedify VPN’s macOS application. This flaw exposed users to local privilege escalation and the potential for full system compromise. It was found in the privileged helper tool me.connectify.SMJobBlessHelper, which executes system-level operations with root privileges for the VPN client. The vulnerability stemmed from improper input validation in the XPC interface, specifically in two user-controlled fields—cmdPath and cmdBin—within incoming XPC messages.
The vulnerability enabled command injection, allowing local attackers to craft malicious XPC messages that could execute arbitrary shell commands.
These user-supplied fields were used directly to construct command-line strings without proper sanitization, allowing attackers to inject harmful commands. The attack chain began with the XPC_Connection_Handler_block_invoke function, which passed unchecked inputs to subsequent functions, eventually leading to system command execution. The vulnerability was critical because it allowed attackers to run arbitrary commands with root privileges, gaining full control over affected macOS devices.
The proof-of-concept exploit demonstrated the risk by sending a crafted XPC message to the vulnerable service, resulting in a reverse shell with root privileges. This allowed attackers to read, modify, or delete system files, install malware, or gain complete access to the device. Successful exploitation could have severe consequences, as attackers could install persistent backdoors or manipulate sensitive system components.
The flaw posed a significant risk to any macOS system running vulnerable versions of Speedify VPN.
Speedify addressed this vulnerability in version 15.4.1 by rewriting the helper tool to eliminate insecure XPC handling. The update introduced proper input validation, closing the command injection vector. Users of affected versions are strongly urged to update to the latest release to prevent exploitation. With this patch, Speedify has mitigated the critical security risk posed by the flaw, ensuring better protection for its users.
