Apple releases emergency security updates to address zero-day vulnerabilities on iPhones, Macs, and iPads

Apple Releases Emergency Security Updates to Address Two Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

Apple has released emergency security updates to address two new zero-day vulnerabilities that have been exploited to compromise iPhones, Macs, and iPads. In security advisories published on Friday, the company warned of a report that these issues may have been actively exploited.

The first vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-28206, is an IOSurfaceAccelerator out-of-bounds write that can lead to data corruption, a crash, or code execution. Attackers can use a maliciously crafted app to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges on targeted devices, once they have successfully exploited the flaw.

The second zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2023-28205) is a WebKit use-after-free weakness, which can result in data corruption or arbitrary code execution when reusing freed memory. Attackers can trick targets into loading malicious web pages under their control, leading to code execution on compromised systems.

Apple responds to in-the-wild exploitation reports with critical security updates

To address these vulnerabilities, Apple has released iOS 16.4.1, iPadOS 16.4.1, macOS Ventura 13.3.1, and Safari 16.4.1, which include improved input validation and memory management. The list of affected devices is quite extensive, including iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 5th generation and later, iPad mini 5th generation and later, and Macs running macOS Ventura.

Although Apple has acknowledged reports of exploitation in the wild, it has not published any information regarding these attacks. However, Apple revealed that Clément Lecigne of Google’s Threat Analysis Group and Donncha Ó Cearbhaill of Amnesty International’s Security Lab discovered the two flaws exploited in the wild as part of an exploit chain. Both organizations regularly disclose campaigns exploiting zero-day bugs abused by government-sponsored threat actors to deploy commercial spyware on the smartphones and computers of politicians, journalists, dissidents, and other high-risk individuals worldwide.

In February, Apple addressed another WebKit zero-day (CVE-2023-23529), which had been exploited in attacks to trigger OS crashes and gain code execution on vulnerable iPhones, iPads, and Macs. While the zero-days patched recently were most likely used in highly targeted attacks, it is highly recommended to install these emergency updates as soon as possible to block potential attack attempts.

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Source: thehackernews.com

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