Apple Discloses 2 Zero-Day Flaws Exploited to Hack iPhones & Mac

Two Zero-Day flaws have been discovered on Apple Devices affecting macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.

The vulnerabilities involve an arbitrary code execution and a buffer overflow. Reports indicate that these vulnerabilities are being actively exploited.

This is considered a high-risk vulnerability as it requires no user interaction. Apple has swiftly acted on the report and released security patches for fixing these vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities affected the services ImageIO and Wallet.

As per reports shared with Cyber Security News, threat actors seem to have been using NSO Group’s Pegasus mercenary spyware for exploitation. The exploit also included PassKit, which consists of a maliciously crafted image. 

The exploit chain for these vulnerabilities has been referred to as BLASTPASS by Citizen Lab. Apple stated that enabling the Lockdown Mode will block this attack. 

“Apple’s update will secure devices belonging to regular users, companies, and governments around the globe. The BLASTPASS discovery highlights the incredible value of our collective cybersecurity of supporting civil society organizations.” reads the post by Citizen Lab.

CVE-2023-41064: Buffer Overflow

This vulnerability exists in macOS Ventura 13.5.2, iOS 16.6.1, and iPadOS 16.6.1, which a threat actor can exploit by sending a maliciously crafted image. Processing of the image leads to a buffer overflow, resulting in an arbitrary code execution.

The severity of this vulnerability is yet to be confirmed. However, Apple has released macOS Ventura 13.5.2, iOS 16.6.1, and iPadOS 16.6.1 in order to fix this vulnerability.

CVE-2023-41061:  Arbitrary Code Execution

This vulnerability exists due to a validation issue that can be exploited by threat actors, leading to arbitrary code execution. These vulnerabilities exist in versions prior to Apple watchOS 9.6.2, iOS 16.6.1, and iPadOS 16.6.1.

The severity of this vulnerability is yet to be confirmed. However, Apple has released watchOS 9.6.2 to fix this vulnerability in the Apple watch.

Security Patches Released by Apple

Name and information link	Available for	Release date
macOS Ventura 13.5.2	macOS Ventura	07 Sep 2023
iOS 16.6.1 and iPadOS 16.6.1	iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later	07 Sep 2023
watchOS 9.6.2	Apple Watch Series 4 and later	07 Sep 2023

Source: Apple

Detailed information about the exploitation and mitigation is yet to be published. 

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