About the security content of watchOS 4 - Apple Support

About Apple security updates

For our customers’ protection, Apple doesn’t disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available. Recent releases are listed on the Apple security updates page.

For more information about security, see the Apple Product Security page. You can encrypt communications with Apple using the Apple Product Security PGP Key.

Apple security documents reference vulnerabilities by CVE-ID when possible.

watchOS 4

Released September 19, 2017

802.1X

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An attacker may be able to exploit weaknesses in TLS 1.0

Description: A protocol security issue was addressed by enabling TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2.

CVE-2017-13832: Doug Wussler of Florida State University

Entry added October 31, 2017, updated November 10, 2017

CFNetwork

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with system privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13829: Niklas Baumstark and Samuel Gro working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative

CVE-2017-13833: Niklas Baumstark and Samuel Gro working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative

Entry added November 10, 2017

CFNetwork Proxies

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An attacker in a privileged network position may be able to cause a denial of service

Description: Multiple denial of service issues were addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-7083: Abhinav Bansal of Zscaler Inc.

Entry added September 25, 2017

CFString

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to read restricted memory

Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved input sanitization.

CVE-2017-13821: Australian Cyber Security Centre – Australian Signals Directorate

Entry added October 31, 2017

CoreAudio

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to read restricted memory

Description: An out-of-bounds read was addressed by updating to Opus version 1.1.4.

CVE-2017-0381: V.E.O (@VYSEa) of Mobile Threat Research Team, Trend Micro

Entry added September 25, 2017

CoreText

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted font file may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory consumption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13825: Australian Cyber Security Centre – Australian Signals Directorate

Entry added October 31, 2017, uodated November 16, 2018

file

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Multiple issues in file

Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 5.31.

CVE-2017-13815: found by OSS-Fuzz

Entry added October 31, 2017, updated October 18, 2018

Fonts

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Rendering untrusted text may lead to spoofing

Description: An inconsistent user interface issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2017-13828: Leonard Grey and Robert Sesek of Google Chrome

Entry added October 31, 2017, updated November 10, 2017

HFS

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with system privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13830: Sergej Schumilo of Ruhr-University Bochum

Entry added October 31, 2017

ImageIO

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2017-13814: Australian Cyber Security Centre – Australian Signals Directorate

Entry added October 31, 2017, updated November 16, 2018

ImageIO

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to a denial of service

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2017-13831: Glen Carmichael

Entry added October 31, 2017, updated April 3, 2019

Kernel

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: A local user may be able to read kernel memory

Description: An out-of-bounds read issue existed that led to the disclosure of kernel memory. This was addressed through improved input validation.

CVE-2017-13817: Maxime Villard (m00nbsd)

Entry added October 31, 2017

Kernel

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to read restricted memory

Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved input sanitization.

CVE-2017-13818: The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)

CVE-2017-13836: Vlad Tsyrklevich

CVE-2017-13841: Vlad Tsyrklevich

CVE-2017-13840: Vlad Tsyrklevich

CVE-2017-13842: Vlad Tsyrklevich

CVE-2017-13782: an anonymous researcher

Entry added October 31, 2017, updated June 18, 2018

Kernel

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13843: an anonymous researcher, an anonymous researcher

Entry added October 31, 2017

Kernel

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-7114: Alex Plaskett of MWR InfoSecurity

Entry added September 25, 2017

Kernel

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with system privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13854: shrek_wzw of Qihoo 360 Nirvan Team

Entry added November 2, 2017

Kernel

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing a malformed mach binary may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed through improved validation.

CVE-2017-13834: Maxime Villard (m00nbsd)

Entry added November 10, 2017

Kernel

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: A malicious application may be able to learn information about the presence and operation of other applications on the device.

Description: An application was able to access network activity information maintained by the operating system unrestricted. This issue was addressed by reducing the information available to third party applications.

CVE-2017-13873: Xiaokuan Zhang and Yinqian Zhang of The Ohio State University, Xueqiang Wang and XiaoFeng Wang of Indiana University Bloomington, and Xiaolong Bai of Tsinghua University

Entry added November 30, 2017

libarchive

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Unpacking a maliciously crafted archive may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A buffer overflow issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13813: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2017-13816: found by OSS-Fuzz

Entry added October 31, 2017

libarchive

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Unpacking a maliciously crafted archive may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: Multiple memory corruption issues existed in libarchive. These issues were addressed through improved input validation.

CVE-2017-13812: found by OSS-Fuzz

Entry added October 31, 2017

libc

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause a denial-of-service

Description: A resource exhaustion issue in glob() was addressed through an improved algorithm.

CVE-2017-7086: Russ Cox of Google

Entry added September 25, 2017

libc

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to cause a denial of service

Description: A memory consumption issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-1000373

Entry added September 25, 2017

libexpat

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Multiple issues in expat

Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 2.2.1

CVE-2016-9063

CVE-2017-9233

Entry added September 25, 2017

libxml2

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2017-9049: Wei Lei and Liu Yang - Nanyang Technological University in Singapore

Entry added October 18, 2018

libxml2

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A buffer overflow issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-7376: an anonymous researcher

CVE-2017-5130: an anonymous researcher

Entry added October 18, 2018

libxml2

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2017-9050: Mateusz Jurczyk (j00ru) of Google Project Zero

Entry added October 18, 2018

libxml2

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A null pointer dereference was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2018-4302: Gustavo Grieco

Entry added October 18, 2018

Security

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: A revoked certificate may be trusted

Description: A certificate validation issue existed in the handling of revocation data. This issue was addressed through improved validation.

CVE-2017-7080: an anonymous researcher, Sven Driemecker of adesso mobile solutions gmbh, an anonymous researcher, Rune Darrud (@theflyingcorpse) of Bærum kommune

Entry added September 25, 2017

SQLite

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Multiple issues in SQLite

Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 3.19.3.

CVE-2017-10989: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2017-7128: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2017-7129: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2017-7130: found by OSS-Fuzz

Entry added September 25, 2017

SQLite

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with system privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-7127: an anonymous researcher

Entry added September 25, 2017

Wi-Fi

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Malicious code executing on the Wi-Fi chip may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges on the application processor

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-7103: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-7105: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-7108: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-7110: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-7112: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero

Wi-Fi

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Malicious code executing on the Wi-Fi chip may be able to read restricted kernel memory

Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved input sanitization.

CVE-2017-7116: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero

zlib

Available for: All Apple Watch models

Impact: Multiple issues in zlib

Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 1.2.11.

CVE-2016-9840

CVE-2016-9841

CVE-2016-9842

CVE-2016-9843

Entry added September 25, 2017

Additional recognition

Security

We would like to acknowledge Abhinav Bansal of Zscaler, Inc. for their assistance.