Apple Safari | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Apple is introducing major updates to  Safari Private Browsing , offering users better protections against third-party trackers as they browse the web. "Advanced tracking and fingerprinting protections go even further to help prevent websites from using the latest techniques to track or identify a user's device," the iPhone maker  said . "Private Browsing now locks when not in use, allowing a user to keep tabs open even when stepping away from the device." The privacy improvements were previewed at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week. They are expected to be rolled out to users as part of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma later this year. Another key change includes Link Tracking Protection in Mail, Messages, and Safari's private mode to automatically remove  tracking parameters  in URLs, which are often used to track information about a click. "Safari has been a somewhat unheralded pioneer of private browsing, a...

Apple on Friday released security updates for  iOS, iPadOS ,  macOS , and  Safari web browser  to address a pair of zero-day flaws that are being exploited in the wild. The two vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2023-28205  - A  use after free issue  in WebKit that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted web content. CVE-2023-28206  - An  out-of-bounds write issue  in IOSurfaceAccelerator that could enable an app to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple said it addressed CVE-2023-28205 with improved memory management and the second with better input validation, adding it's aware the bugs "may have been actively exploited." Credited with discovering and reporting the flaws are Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Donncha Ó Cearbhaill of Amnesty International's Security Lab. Details about the two vulnerabilities have been withheld in light of active exploi...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

A security flaw in Apple Safari that was exploited in the wild earlier this year was originally fixed in 2013 and reintroduced in December 2016, according to a new report from Google Project Zero. The issue, tracked as  CVE-2022-22620  (CVSS score: 8.8), concerns a case of a use-after-free vulnerability in the WebKit component that could be exploited by a piece of specially crafted web content to gain arbitrary code execution. In early February 2022, Apple shipped patches for the bug across Safari, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, while acknowledging that it "may have been actively exploited." "In this case, the variant was completely patched when the vulnerability was initially reported in 2013," Maddie Stone of Google Project Zero  said . "However, the variant was reintroduced three years later during large refactoring efforts. The vulnerability then continued to exist for 5 years until it was fixed as an in-the-wild zero-day in January 2022." While both th...

A software bug introduced in Apple Safari 15's implementation of the IndexedDB API could be abused by a malicious website to track users' online activity in the web browser and worse, even reveal their identity. The vulnerability, dubbed  IndexedDB Leaks , was disclosed by fraud protection software company FingerprintJS, which  reported the issue  to the iPhone maker on November 28, 2021. IndexedDB is a low-level JavaScript application programming interface (API) provided by web browsers for managing a  NoSQL database  of structured data objects such as files and blobs. "Like most web storage solutions, IndexedDB follows a same-origin policy," Mozilla  notes in its documentation  of the API. "So while you can access stored data within a domain, you cannot access data across different domains." Same-origin is a  fundamental security mechanism  that ensures that resources retrieved from distinct  origins  — i.e., a  combina...

Apple has released out-of-band patches for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and Safari web browser to address a security flaw that could allow attackers to run arbitrary code on devices via malicious web content. Tracked as CVE-2021-1844 , the vulnerability was discovered and reported to the company by Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Alison Huffman of Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research. According to the update notes posted by Apple, the flaw stems from a memory corruption issue that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted web content. The company said the problem was addressed with "improved validation." The update is available for devices running  iOS 14.4, iPadOS 14.4 ,  macOS Big Sur , and  watchOS 7.3.1  (Apple Watch Series 3 and later), and as an  update to Safari  for MacBooks running macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave. The latest development comes on the heels of a patch for  three zero-day vu...

Multiple software products from Adobe, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Samsung were successfully pwned with previously unseen exploits in  Tianfu Cup 2020 , the third edition of the international cybersecurity contest held in the city of Chengdu, China. "Many mature and hard targets have been pwned on this year's contest," the event organizers  said . "11 out of 16 targets cracked with 23 successful demos." The hacking competition showed off hacking attempts against a  number of platforms , including: Adobe PDF Reader Apple iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 14 and Safari browser ASUS RT-AX86U router CentOS 8 Docker Community Edition Google Chrome Microsoft Windows 10 v2004 Mozilla Firefox Samsung Galaxy S20 running Android 10 TP-Link TL-WDR7660 router VMware ESXi hypervisor The Tianfu Cup, analogous to Pwn2Own, was started in 2018 following a  government regulation  in the country that barred security researchers from participating in internati...

The infamous eGobbler hacking group that surfaced online earlier this year with massive malvertising campaigns has now been caught running a new campaign exploiting two browser vulnerabilities to show intrusive pop-up ads and forcefully redirect users to malicious websites. To be noted, hackers haven't found any way to run ads for free; instead, the modus operandi of eGobbler attackers involves high budgets to display billions of ad impressions on high profile websites through legit ad networks. But rather than relying on visitors' willful interaction with advertisements online, eGobbler uses browser (Chrome and Safari) exploits to achieve maximum click rate and successfully hijack as many users' sessions as possible. In its previous malvertising campaign, eGobbler group was exploiting a then-zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2019-5840) in Chrome for iOS back in April , which allowed them to successfully bypass browser's built-in pop-up blocker on iOS devices and hij...

Here we have great news for all iPhone Jailbreak lovers and concerning one for the rest of iPhone users. A Chinese cybersecurity researcher has today revealed technical details of critical vulnerabilities in Apple Safari web browser and iOS that could allow a remote attacker to jailbreak and compromise victims' iPhoneX running iOS 12.1.2 and before versions. To do so, all an attacker needs to do is trick iPhoneX users into opening a specially crafted web page using Safari browser, that's it. However, finding flaws and creating a working exploit to carry out such attacks is not as easy as it may sound for every iOS hacker. Discovered by security researcher Qixun Zhao of Qihoo 360's Vulcan Team, the exploit takes advantage of two security vulnerabilities that were first demonstrated at TianfuCup hacking contest held in November last year and then was later responsibly reported to the Apple security team. Zhao today released some details of and a proof-of-concep...

Earlier this week Dropbox team unveiled details of three critical vulnerabilities in Apple macOS operating system, which altogether could allow a remote attacker to execute malicious code on a targeted Mac computer just by convincing a victim into visiting a malicious web page. The reported vulnerabilities were originally discovered by Syndis , a cybersecurity firm hired by Dropbox to conduct simulated penetration testing attacks as Red Team on the company's IT infrastructure, including Apple software used by Dropbox . The vulnerabilities were discovered and disclosed to Apple security team in February this year, which were then patched by Apple just over one month later with the release of its  March security updates . DropBox applauded Apple for its quick response to its bug report. According to DropBox, the vulnerabilities discovered by Syndis didn't just affect its macOS fleet, but also affected all Safari users running the latest version of the web browser and op...

All major web browsers, including Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox, altogether today announced to soon remove support for TLS 1.0 (20-year-old) and TLS 1.1 (12-year-old) communication encryption protocols. Developed initially as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, Transport Layer Security (TLS) is an updated cryptographic protocol used to establish a secure and encrypted communications channel between clients and servers. There are currently four versions of the TLS protocol—TLS 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 ( latest )—but older versions, TLS 1.0 and 1.1, are known to be vulnerable to a number of critical attacks, such as  POODLE  and  BEAST . Since TLS implementation in all major web browsers and applications supports downgrade negotiation process, it leaves an opportunity for attackers to exploit weaker protocols even if a server supports the latest version. All Major Web Browsers Will Remove TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 Su...