---
id: CVE-2026-86819
title: >-
  Waves Central for macOS contains a local privilege escalation in the
  privileged helper service
summary: >-
  Waves Central for macOS contains a local privilege escalation in the
  privileged helper service. The helper authorizes connecting XPC clients by
  comparing the caller's code-signing certificate chain for equality with its
  own, rather than …
severity: high
cvss: 7.1
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N'
cwe:
  - CWE-862
vendor: Waves Audio Ltd.
product: Waves Central
affected:
  - waves_central >= 16.6.2 < 17.0
published: '2026-09-08'
updated: '2026-09-14'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-14T14:17:17.173'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-86819'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cisagov/CSAF/develop/csaf_files/IT/white/2026/va-26-251-02.json
    label: 9119a7d8-5eab-497f-8521-727c672e3725
  - url: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-86819'
    label: 9119a7d8-5eab-497f-8521-727c672e3725
  - url: 'https://www.waves.com/downloads/release-notes#v17'
    label: 9119a7d8-5eab-497f-8521-727c672e3725
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-09-14T13:47:24.516792Z'
epss: 0.001
epssPercentile: 0.00809
ingestedAt: '2026-09-08T21:11:12.372Z'
---

## Overview

Waves Central for macOS contains a local privilege escalation in the privileged helper service. The helper authorizes connecting XPC clients by comparing the caller's code-signing certificate chain for equality with its own, rather than validating the caller against a pinned code requirement (application identifier and Team ID). A local, authenticated user can execute code within the vendor-signed process, satisfy the helper's client check, and cause the helper to execute a script with root privileges. Fixed in 17.0.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.