CVE-2025-30425 in Safari
Summary
by MITRE • 04/01/2025
This issue was addressed through improved state management. This issue is fixed in tvOS 18.4, Safari 18.4, iPadOS 17.7.6, iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, macOS Sequoia 15.4. A malicious website may be able to track users in Safari private browsing mode.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/01/2025
This vulnerability represents a critical privacy breach in Apple's web browsing ecosystem where a malicious website can potentially track users even while they are in private browsing mode. The flaw specifically affects Safari's handling of state management within its private browsing implementation, undermining the fundamental security assumptions that users rely upon when engaging with private browsing features. The issue manifests through improper state handling that allows persistent tracking mechanisms to maintain user identifiers across browsing sessions despite the private mode's intended protections. This vulnerability directly impacts the core privacy guarantees that private browsing modes are designed to provide, creating a scenario where user activities can be monitored and correlated even when the browser is supposedly operating in a private state.
The technical implementation flaw stems from inadequate state management within Safari's private browsing context, where the browser fails to properly isolate or reset certain tracking identifiers when transitioning between private and regular browsing modes. This issue particularly affects how the browser handles session data, cookies, and other stateful information that should be cleared or isolated during private browsing sessions. The vulnerability allows malicious actors to maintain persistent tracking capabilities through mechanisms that exploit the gaps in state management protocols, effectively bypassing the security boundaries that private browsing is supposed to establish. This flaw represents a significant deviation from expected browser behavior and demonstrates a failure in the state management architecture that governs how private browsing contexts are maintained and isolated from regular browsing activities.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privacy concerns to encompass potential identity tracking, behavioral profiling, and cross-site tracking capabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors. Users who rely on private browsing for sensitive activities such as financial transactions, medical research, or confidential communications face heightened risks of exposure and tracking. The vulnerability affects multiple Apple platforms including iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and macOS, indicating a systemic issue within Apple's web rendering and state management components that impacts a broad user base. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to build comprehensive profiles of user behavior across different websites and applications, potentially compromising not just privacy but also security through the ability to track user movements and activities across the internet.
The fix implemented in versions tvOS 18.4, Safari 18.4, iPadOS 17.7.6, iOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 addresses the root cause through enhanced state management protocols that properly isolate private browsing contexts from regular browsing activities. These updates implement stricter controls over session data handling and ensure that tracking identifiers are properly cleared or reset when entering private browsing mode. The mitigation strategy aligns with established security practices for maintaining browser isolation and preventing cross-context tracking. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper state management in web browsers and highlights how seemingly minor implementation flaws in state handling can create significant privacy and security implications. The fix represents a critical improvement in Apple's approach to maintaining privacy boundaries within their browser implementations.
This vulnerability falls under the CWE category of improper handling of state information, specifically addressing the weakness in maintaining proper isolation between different browsing contexts. From an attack perspective, this issue maps to several ATT&CK techniques including T1566 for social engineering and T1531 for credential access through tracking mechanisms. The vulnerability represents a failure in maintaining proper browser sandboxing and context isolation, which are fundamental security requirements for modern web browsers. Security professionals should consider this issue as part of broader privacy tracking assessments and ensure that their monitoring systems are aware of the potential for persistent tracking in private browsing modes. The remediation approach taken by Apple demonstrates the importance of comprehensive state management in maintaining user privacy guarantees and provides a reference implementation for other browser vendors to consider when addressing similar tracking vulnerabilities.