CVE-2026-112459 in iPadOS
Summary
by MITRE • 10/26/2026
A race condition was addressed with improved state handling. This issue is fixed in iOS 27.2 and iPadOS 27.2, macOS Golden Gate 27.2, tvOS 27.2, watchOS 27.2. An app may be able to cause unexpected system termination or corrupt kernel memory.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/27/2026
The vulnerability described involves a race condition within the operating system's state handling mechanisms, specifically affecting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS versions prior to their respective 27.2 updates. A race condition occurs when two or more processes access shared data concurrently, and the final outcome depends on the non-deterministic timing of their execution. In this context, the flaw lies in how the system manages state transitions during concurrent operations. If an application can manipulate the timing of these interactions, it may trigger a window where the system's internal state is inconsistent or invalid before it is properly synchronized or validated by subsequent security checks.
From a technical perspective, this issue represents a classic concurrency bug often categorized under CWE-362: Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization. The lack of proper atomicity in handling specific kernel-level states allows an attacker to exploit the timing gap between state read and write operations. This is particularly dangerous because it bypasses standard sequential logic controls that assume exclusive access during critical sections. By carefully crafting requests or triggering specific system calls, a malicious app can force the kernel into an unexpected state where memory management structures are left in an inconsistent configuration.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to its potential for both denial of service and arbitrary code execution scenarios. As noted in the advisory, an attacker may cause unexpected system termination, which corresponds to CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption or CWE-835: Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition if it leads to infinite loops causing crashes. More critically, the ability to corrupt kernel memory opens the door for privilege escalation attacks. If the corrupted state allows an application to overwrite critical pointers or control flow data within the kernel space, the attacker could execute arbitrary code with root privileges. This aligns with MITRE ATT&CK techniques such as T1068: Exploitation for Privilege Escalation and potentially T1055: Process Injection if memory corruption facilitates payload delivery into privileged processes.
Mitigation strategies primarily rely on applying the vendor-provided software updates that address these state handling deficiencies. For end-users, ensuring that iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS are updated to version 27.2 or later is essential to close this race condition window. Developers should also review their applications for any reliance on timing-dependent behaviors when interacting with system APIs, as such patterns can inadvertently trigger these vulnerabilities even in patched systems if the underlying assumptions about state consistency were flawed. Additionally, enforcing strict sandboxing policies and minimizing app permissions reduces the attack surface by limiting which processes have access to the sensitive kernel interfaces involved in this race condition.