CVE-2016-7610 in iCloud
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. iOS before 10.2 is affected. Safari before 10.0.2 is affected. iCloud before 6.1 is affected. iTunes before 12.5.4 is affected. The issue involves the "WebKit" component. It allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) via a crafted web site.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/07/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-7610 represents a critical memory corruption flaw within Apple's WebKit rendering engine that affected multiple Apple products including iOS versions prior to 10.2, Safari versions before 10.0.2, iCloud versions before 6.1, and iTunes versions before 12.5.4. This vulnerability resides in the WebKit component which serves as the core browser engine responsible for rendering web content across Apple's ecosystem. The flaw manifests as a heap-based buffer overflow or memory corruption issue that occurs when processing specially crafted web content, allowing remote attackers to exploit this weakness through malicious websites without requiring user interaction or authentication.
The technical nature of this vulnerability places it within the CWE-125 vulnerability category, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions where a program accesses memory beyond the boundaries of a buffer. The WebKit component's handling of malformed web content triggers memory corruption that can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected application. Attackers can craft malicious web pages that, when loaded in Safari or other WebKit-based applications, cause the browser to allocate memory incorrectly, leading to memory corruption that can be exploited to gain code execution capabilities. This type of vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be triggered remotely through web browsing activities without any user interaction beyond visiting the malicious website.
The operational impact of CVE-2016-7610 extends beyond simple denial of service scenarios to encompass full system compromise potential. When exploited successfully, the vulnerability can allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected devices, potentially leading to complete system compromise, data theft, or persistent backdoor installation. The vulnerability affects a broad range of Apple products that rely on WebKit, making it a widespread concern across the iOS ecosystem, desktop applications, and cloud services. Applications such as Safari, iTunes, and iCloud that utilize WebKit for rendering web content all present attack vectors for this vulnerability, creating multiple potential entry points for malicious actors.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2016-7610 primarily focus on immediate software updates and patch management to address the underlying WebKit vulnerability. Apple released security updates for iOS 10.2, Safari 10.0.2, iCloud 6.1, and iTunes 12.5.4 that resolve the memory corruption issue. Organizations should implement comprehensive patch management programs to ensure all affected Apple products receive timely updates. Additional mitigations include network-based security controls such as web content filtering, proxy configurations that block malicious domains, and browser security enhancements like sandboxing features. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of adhering to security best practices such as keeping all software components updated, implementing network segmentation, and maintaining robust monitoring systems to detect potential exploitation attempts. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving remote code execution through web-based attacks and can be categorized under initial access and execution phases of the attack lifecycle.