---
title: "Web GPU 'Deathray' Freezes Macs via Untrusted Sites"
description: "Via Hacker News: A newly demonstrated exploit dubbed **\"The Deathray\"** allows an untrusted website to freeze a Mac's graphics system, rendering the desktop ..."
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url: https://headlinesbriefing.com/dev/hacker-news/web-gpu-deathray-freezes-macs-via-untrusted-sites-c3d90488
sources:
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  - ByteByteGo
  - Google AI Blog
  - OpenAI Blog
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  - Towards Data Science
  - MIT Technology Review
---

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### Web GPU 'Deathray' Freezes Macs via Untrusted Sites

Hacker News • September 10, 2026 at 3:34 PM ET

[×](/dev?tab=hacker-news)

A newly demonstrated exploit dubbed **"The Deathray"** allows an untrusted website to freeze a Mac's graphics system, rendering the desktop UI unusable until a forced restart. Disclosed on September 10, 2026, the vulnerability affects **Mac OS** across **Chrome**, **Firefox**, and **Safari** on **M-series MacBooks** running **Tahoe**, but does not reproduce on other operating systems. The attack leverages **Web GPU**, a modern browser API for running shaders on the device GPU.

A minimal compute shader contains an infinite busy loop that monopolizes the GPU buffer, blocking the vertex shader and cascading into the Window Server. This causes system-wide UI freezes, visual artifacts, and eventually a kernel panic triggered by a watchdog timer. The rest of the system remains responsive via SSH.

The author notes this mirrors a 2023 Web GL exploit, **"Shady Shader"** by **Ron Masas** of **Imperva** (CVE-2023-40441), which Apple patched with improved loop detection. However, **Web GPU** validation appears weaker, allowing trivially identifiable infinite loops. The author argues detecting halting states is fundamentally impossible and urges better GPU pre-emption for untrusted code, noting other OSes handle this correctly.

[Read original article](https://auberon.xyz/blog/posts/deathray/)

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