Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Apple iOS and iPadOS up to 16.2 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component WebKit. The manipulation leads to memory corruption. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-23518. The attack may be launched remotely. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Apple iOS and iPadOS up to 16.2 (Smartphone Operating System) and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code block of the component WebKit. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in macOS Monterey 12.6.3, macOS Ventura 13.2, watchOS 9.3, macOS Big Sur 11.7.3, Safari 16.3, tvOS 16.3, iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution.

The weakness was disclosed 01/23/2023 by YeongHyeon Choi as HT213606 as confirmed advisory (Website). The advisory is shared at support.apple.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-23518. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 03/12/2025). It is expected to see the exploit prices for this product increasing in the near future. The advisory points out:

Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 212174 (Apple Safari 16.3 Multiple Vulnerabilities (120946)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 16.3 eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published immediately after the disclosure of the vulnerability. The advisory contains the following remark:

The issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (212174). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Smartphone Operating System

Vendor

• Apple

Name

• iOS
• iPadOS

Version

• 16.0
• 16.1
• 16.2

License

• commercial

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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