Apple | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Apple has revised the  security advisories  it released last month to include three new vulnerabilities impacting  iOS, iPadOS , and  macOS . The first flaw is a  race condition  in the Crash Reporter component (CVE-2023-23520) that could enable a malicious actor to read arbitrary files as root. The iPhone maker said it addressed the issue with additional validation. The two other vulnerabilities, credited to Trellix researcher Austin Emmitt, reside in the  Foundation framework  (CVE-2023-23530 and CVE-2023-23531) and could be weaponized to achieve code execution. "An app may be able to execute arbitrary code out of its sandbox or with certain elevated privileges," Apple said, adding it patched the issues with "improved memory handling." The medium to high-severity vulnerabilities have been patched in iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3, and macOS Ventura 13.2 that were shipped on January 23, 2023. Trellix, in its own report on Tuesday,  classified  the two flaws as a &qu

Apple on Monday rolled out security updates for  iOS, iPadOS ,  macOS , and  Safari  to address a zero-day flaw that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2023-23529 , the issue relates to a type confusion bug in the WebKit browser engine that could be activated when processing maliciously crafted web content, culminating in arbitrary code execution. The iPhone maker said the bug was addressed with improved checks, adding it's "aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited." An anonymous researcher has been credited with reporting the flaw. It's not immediately clear as to how the vulnerability is being exploited in real-world attacks, but it's the second actively abused type confusion flaw in WebKit to be patched by Apple after  CVE-2022-42856  in as many months, which was closed in December 2022.  WebKit flaws are also notable for the fact that they impact every third-party web browser that's available fo

When it comes to ensuring the security of your APIs, there are four critical capabilities.

Apple has backported fixes for a recently disclosed critical security flaw affecting older devices, citing evidence of active exploitation. The issue, tracked as  CVE-2022-42856 , is a type confusion vulnerability in the WebKit browser engine that could result in arbitrary code execution when processing maliciously crafted web content. While it was originally addressed by the company on November 30, 2022, as part of iOS 16.1.2 update, the patch was subsequently expanded to a broader set of Apple devices with iOS 15.7.2, iPadOS 15.7.2, macOS Ventura 13.1, tvOS 16.2, and Safari 16.2. "Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.1," the iPhone maker  said  in an advisory published Monday. To that end, the latest update, iOS 12.5.7, is available for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation). Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Anal

A variant of the infamous Dridex banking malware has set its sights on Apple's macOS operating system using a previously undocumented infection method, according to latest research. It has "adopted a new technique to deliver documents embedded with malicious macros to users without having to pretend to be invoices or other business-related files," Trend Micro researcher Armando Nathaniel Pedragoza  said  in a technical report. Dridex , also called Bugat and Cridex, is an information stealer that's known to harvest sensitive data from infected machines and deliver and execute malicious modules. It's attributed to an e-crime group known as Evil Corp (aka Indrik Spider). The malware is also considered to be a successor of  Gameover Zeus , itself a follow-up to another banking trojan called Zeus. Previous Dridex campaigns targeting Windows have  leveraged  macro-enabled Microsoft Excel documents sent via phishing emails to deploy the payload. A law enforcement o

Apple on Tuesday rolled out security updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and Safari web browser to address a new zero-day vulnerability that could result in the execution of malicious code. Tracked as  CVE-2022-42856 , the issue has been described by the tech giant as a type confusion issue in the WebKit browser engine that could be triggered when processing specially crafted content, leading to arbitrary code execution. The company said it's "aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.1." While details surrounding the exact nature of the attacks are unknown as yet, it's likely that it involved a case of social engineering or a watering hole to infect the devices when visiting a rogue or legitimate-but-compromised domain via the browser. It's worth noting that every third-party web browser that's available for iOS and iPadOS, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edg

Apple on Wednesday  announced  a raft of security measures, including an Advanced Data Protection setting that enables end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) data backups in its iCloud service. The headlining feature, when turned on, is expected to secure 23 data categories using E2EE, including device and message backups, iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Voice Memos, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, and Wallet Passes. The iPhone maker said the only major iCloud data categories that are still not protected by E2EE are Mail, Contacts, and Calendar because of the "need to interoperate with the global email, contacts, and calendar systems" that use legacy technologies. Advanced Data Protection's E2EE protections for iCloud also mean that users' personal data can only be decrypted on their trusted devices, which retain the encryption keys. "If you enable Advanced Data Protection and then lose access to your account, Apple will not have the encryption keys to help

A now-patched security flaw in Apple's iOS and macOS operating systems could have potentially enabled apps with Bluetooth access to eavesdrop on conversations with Siri. Apple said "an app may be able to record audio using a pair of connected AirPods," adding it addressed the Core Bluetooth issue in iOS 16.1 with improved entitlements. Credited with discovering and reporting the bug in August 2022 is app developer Guilherme Rambo. The bug, dubbed  SiriSpy , has been assigned the identifier CVE-2022-32946. "Any app with access to Bluetooth could record your conversations with Siri and audio from the iOS keyboard dictation feature when using AirPods or Beats headsets," Rambo  said  in a write-up. "This would happen without the app requesting microphone access permission and without the app leaving any trace that it was listening to the microphone." The vulnerability, according to Rambo, relates to a service called DoAP that's included in AirPo

Tech giant Apple on Monday rolled out updates to remediate a zero-day flaw in iOS and iPadOS that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. The weakness, given the identifier CVE-2022-42827 , has been described as an out-of-bounds write issue in the Kernel, which could be abused by a rogue application to execute arbitrary code with the highest privileges. Successful exploitation of out-of-bounds write flaws, which typically occur when a program attempts to write data to a memory location that's outside of the bounds of what it is allowed to access, can result in corruption of data, a crash, or execution of unauthorized code. The iPhone maker said it addressed the bug with improved bounds checking, while crediting an anonymous researcher for reporting the vulnerability. As is usually the case with actively exploited zero-day flaws, Apple refrained from sharing more specifics about the shortcoming other than acknowledging that it's "aware of a report that this i

Security researchers have shared details about a now-addressed security flaw in Apple's macOS operating system that could be potentially exploited to run malicious applications in a manner that can bypass Apple's security measures. The vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2022-32910 , is rooted in the built-in Archive Utility and "could lead to the execution of an unsigned and unnotarized application without displaying security prompts to the user, by using a specially crafted archive," Apple device management firm Jamf said in an analysis. Following responsible disclosure on May 31, 2022, Apple addressed the issue as part of  macOS Big Sur 11.6.8  and  Monterey 12.5  released on July 20, 2022. The tech giant, for its part, also revised the earlier-issued advisories as of October 4 to add an entry for the flaw. Apple described the bug as a logic issue that could allow an archive file to get around Gatekeeper checks, which is designed so as to ascertain that only trust

Apple has released another round of security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in iOS and macOS, including a new zero-day flaw that has been used in attacks in the wild. The issue, assigned the identifier  CVE-2022-32917 , is rooted in the Kernel component and could enable a malicious app to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. "Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited," the iPhone maker acknowledged in a brief statement, adding it resolved the bug with improved bound checks. An anonymous researcher has been credited with reporting the shortcoming. It's worth noting that CVE-2022-32917 is also the  second Kernel related zero-day flaw  that Apple has remediated in less than a month. Patches are available in versions  iOS 15.7, iPadOS 15.7 ,  iOS 16 ,  macOS Big Sur 11.7 , and  macOS Monterey 12.6 . The iOS and iPadOS updates cover iPhone 6s and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generati

Apple on Wednesday backported security updates to older iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices to address a  critical security flaw  that has been actively exploited in the wild. The shortcoming, tracked as  CVE-2022-32893  (CVSS score: 8.8), is an out-of-bounds write issue affecting WebKit that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing maliciously crafted web content. WebKit is the browser engine that powers Safari and every other third-party browser available on iOS and iPadOS, meaning a flaw uncovered in the platform poses a security risk to users of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge as well. The tech giant said it fixed the bug with improved bounds checking. An anonymous researcher has been credited for reporting the vulnerability. The iOS 12.5.6 update is available for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation). "iOS 12 is not impacted by CVE-2022-32894," Apple  noted  in it

The operators of the XCSSET macOS malware have upped the stakes by making iterative improvements that add support for macOS Monterey by upgrading its source code components to Python 3. "The malware authors have changed from hiding the primary executable in a fake Xcode.app in the initial versions in 2020 to a fake Mail.app in 2021 and now to a fake Notes.app in 2022," SentinelOne researchers Phil Stokes and Dinesh Devadoss  said  in a report. XCSSET, first  documented  by Trend Micro in 2020, has many moving parts that allow it to  harvest sensitive information  from Apple Notes, WeChat, Skype, and Telegram; inject malicious JavaScript code into various websites; and dump cookies from Safari web browser. Infection chains entail using a dropper to compromise users' Xcode projects with the backdoor, with the latter also taking steps to evade detection by masquerading as either system software or the Google Chrome web browser application. The primary executable is an

Apple on Wednesday released security updates for  iOS, iPadOS , and  macOS  platforms to remediate two zero-day vulnerabilities previously exploited by threat actors to compromise its devices. The list of issues is below - CVE-2022-32893  - An out-of-bounds write issue in WebKit which could lead to the execution of arbitrary code by processing a specially crafted web content CVE-2022-32894  - An out-of-bounds write issue in the operating system's Kernel that could be abused by a malicious application to execute arbitrary code with the highest privileges Apple said it addressed both the issues with improved bounds checking, adding it's aware the vulnerabilities "may have been actively exploited." The company did not disclose any additional information regarding these attacks or the identities of the threat actors perpetrating them, although it's likely that they were abused as part of highly-targeted intrusions. The latest update brings the total number o

Apple on Wednesday rolled out  software fixes  for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS to address a number of security flaws affecting its platforms. This includes at least 37 flaws spanning different components in iOS and macOS that range from privilege escalation to arbitrary code execution and from information disclosure to denial-of-service (DoS). Chief among them is CVE-2022-2294, a memory corruption flaw in the WebRTC component that Google  disclosed  earlier this month as having been exploited in real-world attacks aimed at users of the Chrome browser. There is, however, no evidence of in-the-wild zero-day exploitation of the flaw targeting iOS, macOS, and Safari. Besides CVE-2022-2294, the updates also address several arbitrary code execution flaws impacting Apple Neural Engine (CVE-2022-32810, CVE-2022-32829, and CVE-2022-32840), Audio (CVE-2022-32820), GPU Drivers (CVE-2022-32821), ImageIO (CVE-2022-32802), IOMobileFrameBuffer (CVE-2022-26768), Kernel (CVE-2022-32813

Cybersecurity researchers have taken the wraps off a previously undocumented spyware targeting the Apple macOS operating system. The malware, codenamed  CloudMensis  by Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, is said to exclusively use public cloud storage services such as pCloud, Yandex Disk, and Dropbox for receiving attacker commands and exfiltrating files. "Its capabilities clearly show that the intent of its operators is to gather information from the victims' Macs by exfiltrating documents, keystrokes, and screen captures," ESET researcher Marc-Etienne M.Léveillé  said  in a report published today. CloudMensis, written in Objective-C, was first discovered in April 2022 and is designed to strike both Intel and Apple silicon architectures. The initial infection vector for the attacks and the targets remain unknown as yet. But its very limited distribution is an indication that the malware is being used as part of a highly targeted operation directed against entities of i

Microsoft on Wednesday shed light on a now patched security vulnerability affecting Apple's operating systems that, if successfully exploited, could allow attackers to escalate device privileges and deploy malware. "An attacker could take advantage of this sandbox escape vulnerability to gain elevated privileges on the affected device or execute malicious commands like installing additional payloads," Jonathan Bar Or of the Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team  said  in a write-up. Tracked as  CVE-2022-26706  (CVSS score: 5.5), the security vulnerability impacts iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS and was fixed by Apple in May 2022. Calling it an access issue affecting the LaunchServices (launchd) component, the iPhone maker noted that "A sandboxed process may be able to circumvent sandbox restrictions," adding it mitigated the issue with additional restrictions. While Apple's  App Sandbox  is designed to tightly regulate a third-party app's acce

Apple on Wednesday announced it plans to introduce an enhanced security setting called  Lockdown Mode  in iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura to safeguard high-risk users against "highly targeted cyberattacks." The "extreme, optional protection" feature, now available for preview in beta versions of its upcoming software, is designed to counter a surge in threats posed by private companies developing state-sponsored surveillanceware such as  Pegasus ,  DevilsTongue ,  Predator , and  Hermit . Lockdown Mode, when enabled, "hardens device defenses and strictly limits certain functionalities, sharply reducing the attack surface that potentially could be exploited by highly targeted mercenary spyware," Apple  said  in a statement. This includes blocking most message attachment types other than images and disabling link previews in Messages; rendering inoperative just-in-time ( JIT ) JavaScript compilation; removing support for shared albums in Photos; a

One of the commissioners of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has renewed calls asking for Apple and Google to boot the popular video-sharing platform TikTok from their app stores citing "its pattern of surreptitious data practices." "It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing's apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data," Brendan Carr, a Republican member of the FCC,  wrote  in a letter to Apple and Google's chief executives. TikTok, in September 2021,  disclosed  that there are one billion people who use its app every month, making it one of the largest social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and WeChat. Carr further emphasized that the short-form video service is far from just an app for sharing funny videos or memes, calling out its features as "sheep's clothing" intended to mask its core funct

A novel hardware attack dubbed  PACMAN  has been demonstrated against Apple's M1 processor chipsets, potentially arming a malicious actor with the capability to gain arbitrary code execution on macOS systems. It leverages "speculative execution attacks to bypass an important memory protection mechanism, ARM Pointer Authentication, a security feature that is used to enforce pointer integrity," MIT researchers Joseph Ravichandran, Weon Taek Na, Jay Lang, and Mengjia Yan  said  in a new paper. What's more concerning is that "while the hardware mechanisms used by PACMAN cannot be patched with software features, memory corruption bugs can be," the researchers added. The vulnerability is rooted in pointer authentication codes ( PACs ), a line of defense introduced in arm64e architecture that aims to detect and secure against unexpected changes to  pointers  — objects that reference an address location in memory. PACs aim to solve a common problem in software

Apple has introduced a Rapid Security Response feature in iOS 16 and macOS Ventura that's designed to deploy security fixes without the need for a full operating system version update. "macOS security gets even stronger with new tools that make the Mac more resistant to attack, including Rapid Security Response that works in between normal updates to easily keep security up to date without a reboot," the company  said  in a statement on Monday. The feature, which also works on iOS , aims to separate regular software updates from critical security improvements and are applied automatically so that users are quickly protected against in-the-wild attacks and unexpected threats. It's worth noting that Apple tested an analogous option in iOS 14.5. Rapid Security Response, viewed in that light, mirrors a similar approach taken by Google through Play Services and Play Protect to secure Android devices from malware and other kinds of fraud. Another key security fea