8.8 High
CVSS3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.4 High
AI Score
Confidence
High
6.8 Medium
CVSS2
Access Vector
NETWORK
Access Complexity
MEDIUM
Authentication
NONE
Confidentiality Impact
PARTIAL
Integrity Impact
PARTIAL
Availability Impact
PARTIAL
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
0.007 Low
EPSS
Percentile
78.1%
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added a high-severity flaw impacting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-48618 (CVSS score: 7.8), concerns a bug in the kernel component.
βAn attacker with arbitrary read and write capability may be able to bypass Pointer Authentication,β Apple said in an advisory, adding the issue βmay have been exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.7.1.β
The iPhone maker said the problem was addressed with improved checks. Itβs currently not known how the vulnerability is being weaponized in real-world attacks.
Interestingly, patches for the flaw were released on December 13, 2022, with the release of iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS Ventura 13.1, tvOS 16.2, and watchOS 9.2, although it was only publicly disclosed more than a year later on January 9, 2024.
Itβs worth noting that Apple did resolve a similar flaw in the kernel (CVE-2022-32844, CVSS score: 6.3) in iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6, which was shipped on July 20, 2022. Itβs not immediately clear if the two vulnerabilities are related.
βAn app with arbitrary kernel read and write capability may be able to bypass Pointer Authentication,β the company said at the time. βA logic issue was addressed with improved state management.β
In light of the active exploitation of CVE-2022-48618, CISA is recommending that Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies apply the fixes by February 21, 2024.
The development also comes as Apple expanded patches for an actively exploited security flaw in the WebKit browser engine (CVE-2024-23222, CVSS score: 8.8) to include its Apple Vision Pro headset. The fix is available in visionOS 1.0.2.
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8.8 High
CVSS3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.4 High
AI Score
Confidence
High
6.8 Medium
CVSS2
Access Vector
NETWORK
Access Complexity
MEDIUM
Authentication
NONE
Confidentiality Impact
PARTIAL
Integrity Impact
PARTIAL
Availability Impact
PARTIAL
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
0.007 Low
EPSS
Percentile
78.1%