CVE-2017-2523 in watchOS
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. iOS before 10.3.2 is affected. macOS before 10.12.5 is affected. tvOS before 10.2.1 is affected. watchOS before 3.2.2 is affected. The issue involves the "Foundation" component. It allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) via crafted data.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/08/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-2523 represents a critical memory corruption flaw within Apple's Foundation framework that affects multiple operating systems including iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. This foundational component serves as the core framework for application development across Apple's ecosystem, providing essential services for data handling, networking, and system operations. The flaw exists in how the Foundation framework processes crafted data inputs, creating a pathway for malicious actors to exploit memory handling mechanisms and potentially gain unauthorized execution privileges.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from improper input validation and memory management within the Foundation component's data parsing routines. When applications process specially crafted data through Foundation APIs, the memory corruption occurs during the handling of malformed input sequences, leading to unpredictable behavior that can manifest as arbitrary code execution or system crashes. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write vulnerabilities, both of which are common vectors for remote code execution exploits. The memory corruption typically occurs in heap-based data structures where insufficient bounds checking allows attackers to overwrite critical memory regions.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risk across Apple's device ecosystem as the Foundation framework is extensively used throughout both system-level and user applications. Attackers could leverage this flaw remotely through various attack vectors including malicious email attachments, compromised websites, or infected applications downloaded from official app stores. The impact ranges from application-level crashes that disrupt user experience to full system compromise where remote attackers can execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected application. This vulnerability particularly affects older versions of Apple's operating systems, making devices running iOS 10.3.1 and earlier, macOS 10.12.4 and earlier, tvOS 10.2.0 and earlier, and watchOS 3.2.1 and earlier susceptible to exploitation.
The attack surface for this vulnerability is extensive given that Foundation is a fundamental component used by virtually all applications on Apple platforms. The exploitability of this flaw is enhanced by the fact that it can be triggered through legitimate application interfaces, making it difficult to detect and prevent through traditional network-based security measures. Security researchers have noted that this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059, which covers command and script interpreter execution, as the memory corruption can be leveraged to execute malicious code on target systems. Organizations and users must understand that this vulnerability represents a persistent threat that requires immediate remediation through proper system updates. The recommended mitigation strategy involves applying the official security patches released by Apple for each affected operating system version, which address the underlying memory handling issues in the Foundation framework. Additionally, network administrators should consider implementing additional security controls such as application whitelisting and monitoring for unusual network activity that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability underscores the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date software across all device platforms and demonstrates how foundational framework components can pose systemic risks when vulnerabilities are present in widely-used system libraries.