Actively exploited vulnerability

Apple products: memory corruption flaw under attack

CVE-2023-42917 · Apple Multiple Products WebKit Memory Corruption Vulnerability

Concerns everyone who uses it8.8 high

What is affected

Apple products are found on ordinary personal computers and phones, so this is not only a problem for companies. If you use them and have not updated since the fix was released, you are exposed.

Apple iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari WebKit contain a memory corruption vulnerability that leads to code execution when processing maliciously crafted web content. This vulnerability could impact HTML parsers that use WebKit, including but not limited to Apple Safari and non-Apple products which rely on WebKit for HTML processing.

CISA's description

What an attacker can do

This is a memory corruption flaw. It lets an attacker corrupt the program's memory by feeding it specially crafted content: a web page, a file or a network message. The result ranges from a crash to the attacker running their own code.

How it is reached
Over the internet or network
Access the attacker needs
No account needed
Does the victim have to do something?
Yes, the victim must open or click something

What to do

  1. Update Apple products now. Open the update or "About" screen, install whatever is offered and restart the app or device, because the fix is not active until you do.
  2. Turn on automatic updates so the next fix arrives without you having to look for it.
  3. If your device is too old to receive this update, stop using the affected app for anything sensitive and plan a replacement.

Apply remediations or mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if remediation or mitigations are unavailable.

Action required by CISA for US federal agencies

Vendor advisories and fixes

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on December 4, 2023, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by December 25, 2023, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 9.3% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 95% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 8.8 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

A memory corruption vulnerability was addressed with improved locking. This issue is fixed in iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2, macOS Sonoma 14.1.2, Safari 17.1.2. Processing web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 16.7.1.

NIST National Vulnerability Database
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