Apple’s most recent security upgrades for iOS, macOS, Safari, visionOS, and iPadOS included concise but crucial mention of two actively taken advantage of weaknesses.
The giant tech corporation revealed that Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens, from Google’s Risk Analysis Group, identified these weaknesses. The vulnerabilities have been officially identified by NIST as CVE-2024-44308 and CVE-2024-44309.
What are the weaknesses Apple patched?
Apple provided limited details about the exploitation or the potential actions carried out by attackers using these vulnerabilities. Nonetheless, the Risk Analysis Group focuses on activities related to “government-backed hacking and assaults against Google and our users.” Hence, it is conceivable that these vulnerabilities were employed in well-financed attacks targeting specific entities.
SEE: Interested in accepting Apple Pay at your enterprise? Learn how with our comprehensive guide.
Through CVE-2024-44308, malevolent entities could generate harmful web content, potentially resulting in arbitrary code execution. Apple identified this exploit potentially affecting Intel-based Mac systems—not applicable to systems utilizing Apple’s proprietary M chips, which have become the norm since 2023. Apple implemented enhanced checks to counter this issue.
CVE-2024-44309 was subject to a similar style of exploitation and pertained to Intel-based Macs, albeit the resolution was dissimilar. Apple confirmed that its team resolved a cookie management dilemma by enhancing state management.
The impacted operating systems are:
- Safari 18.1.1
- iOS 17.7.2
- iPadOS 17.7.2
- macOS Sequoia 15.1.1
- iOS 18.1.1
- iPadOS 18.1.1
- visionOS 2.1.1
Apple encountered four unknown-day vulnerabilities earlier in 2024
Aside from the recent exploits, Apple divulged four unknown-day vulnerabilities this year, all of which it addressed:
- CVE-2024-27834, a circumvention around pointer authentication.
- CVE-2024-23222, a vulnerability facilitating arbitrary code execution.
- CVE-2024-23225, a situation involving memory corruption.
- CVE-2024-23296, another instance of memory corruption.
Apple devices are reputed for their resistance to viruses and malware, partially due to Apple’s firm grip on its App Store environment. Nonetheless, this does not imply that these devices are immune to all types of attacks. According to numerous published reports, adversarial agents are increasing their efforts to infiltrate macOS, especially with infostealers and trojans.
In April, Apple alerted specific users that their iPhones had been compromised in “a mercenary spyware attack,” where threat actors singled out particular individuals. Other vulnerabilities might surface in hardware, like the GoFetch vulnerability that arose in Apple’s M-series chips earlier this year.
Uphold cybersecurity finest approaches
Unknown-day disclosures present excellent opportunities for IT groups to reiterate the importance of following up with operating system upgrades and adhering to organizational security protocols. Strong passcodes or two-step verification can significantly enhance security measures. Many top-tier cybersecurity practices transcend various operating systems, including those of Apple.
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