CVE-2024-27818 in macOS
Summary
by MITRE • 05/14/2024
The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8, iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5, macOS Sonoma 14.5. An attacker may be able to cause unexpected app termination or arbitrary code execution.
Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/03/2026
This vulnerability represents a memory handling flaw that could enable attackers to achieve either unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution on affected systems. The issue was specifically addressed through enhanced memory management protocols in the patched versions of Apple's operating systems. The vulnerability affects iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8, iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5, as well as macOS Sonoma 14.5. The technical nature of this flaw suggests it likely involves improper memory allocation, deallocation, or access patterns that could be exploited to manipulate program execution flow. Such memory handling issues typically fall under common weakness enumerations related to buffer overflows, use-after-free conditions, or memory corruption vulnerabilities.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple application crashes to potentially enabling full system compromise through arbitrary code execution capabilities. Attackers could leverage this flaw to execute malicious code within the context of affected applications or system processes, potentially leading to privilege escalation or persistent system access. The vulnerability's classification aligns with attack patterns documented in the attack tree framework where memory corruption issues often serve as initial access vectors for more sophisticated exploitation techniques. This type of vulnerability commonly maps to CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read) or CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write) categories, representing the fundamental memory safety issues that have historically led to critical system compromises.
The mitigation strategy for this vulnerability requires immediate deployment of the patched operating system versions across all affected devices. System administrators should prioritize updating iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8, iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5, as well as macOS Sonoma 14.5 installations. The memory handling improvements implemented in these patches likely include enhanced bounds checking, improved memory allocation routines, and strengthened validation mechanisms for memory operations. Security teams should monitor for any indicators of exploitation attempts and consider implementing additional defensive measures such as application whitelisting and process monitoring to detect anomalous behavior that might indicate attempted exploitation of this memory handling vulnerability. Organizations should also review their incident response procedures to ensure readiness for potential exploitation scenarios that could arise from this class of memory corruption vulnerabilities.