A high-risk vulnerability has been discovered in Apple’s operating systems, which puts most of its devices at a risk of exploitation including iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPad, Mac and more. Apple devices are considered some of the safest in the market when it comes to cybersecurity. Hackers usually have a very tough time when trying to crack through Apple’s OS. However, this recent vulnerability has confirmed that nothing in this world is 100% safe. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) recently revealed that vulnerabilities were discovered in iOS, iPadOS and MacOS which could give attackers access to sensitive information and more.
CERT-In issued multiple advisories today, February 15, stating that the vulnerabilities, termed as CVE-2023-23514, CVE-2023-23522 and CVE-2023-23529 affect iOS and iPadOS versions prior to 16.3.1 update and Apple macOS Ventura versions prior to 13.2.1. The cybersecurity watchdog also released a list of affected devices which included Apple 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.
The vulnerability arises due to a use after free issue is Kernel, improper handling of temporary files in shortcut and type confusion in WebKit components. According to the official release, an attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by sending maliciously crafted web content and trigger memory corruption errors.
“Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow the attacker to gain elevated privileges, execute arbitrary code and gain access to sensitive information on the targeted system,” the report further stated.
What can iPhone, iPad users do?
CERT-In has warned users that vulnerability is being exploited in the wild. Users are advised to apply software patches urgently. Apple regularly pushes out updates bringing new features to the public as well as improving its security restrictions and patch vulnerabilities. Therefore, if you’re on the same firmware as revealed above, you should immediately update your iPhone or iPad to the latest software version.
