CVE-2026-43702 in iPadOS
Summary
by MITRE • 09/15/2026
The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in iOS 26.6 and iPadOS 26.6, iOS 26.7 and iPadOS 26.7, macOS Sequoia 15.8, macOS Tahoe 26.6, macOS Tahoe 26.7, tvOS 26.6, watchOS 26.6. Processing a maliciously crafted video file may lead to unexpected app termination or corrupt process memory.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/15/2026
The vulnerability described involves a critical flaw in the processing of multimedia content within Apple's operating systems, specifically affecting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS environments. The core technical issue stems from improper memory handling during the parsing and decoding of video files. When an application processes a maliciously crafted video file, it fails to correctly manage allocated memory buffers or validate input data boundaries before writing to them. This lack of rigorous validation allows for conditions where out-of-bounds writes or use-after-free scenarios can occur, leading to corruption of process memory. Such memory corruption is particularly dangerous as it disrupts the integrity of the application's runtime environment and can lead to unpredictable behavior including crashes, denial of service through unexpected termination, or potentially more severe exploitation vectors if an attacker can control the corrupted data structures.
From a technical perspective, this flaw aligns with Common Weakness Enumeration categories such as CWE-120 Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input Classic Buffer Overflow and CWE-416 Use After Free, depending on the specific mechanism exploited within the video decoding pipeline. The ability to trigger unexpected app termination indicates that the vulnerability can be leveraged for Denial of Service attacks against applications handling media content. However, given the nature of memory corruption vulnerabilities in system-level components like multimedia frameworks, there is a significant risk that this flaw could also facilitate arbitrary code execution if an attacker successfully crafts input data to overwrite function pointers or return addresses within the process heap or stack. This places the vulnerability at high severity due to its potential impact on both availability and confidentiality/integrity of user data processed by affected applications.
The operational impact extends beyond simple application crashes. Since video processing is often handled in privileged system services or sandboxed apps with access to sensitive resources, memory corruption could potentially be chained with other vulnerabilities to escalate privileges or bypass security controls like ASLR and DEP. Users interacting with untrusted media sources, such as emails, messaging applications, or web browsers that render embedded videos, are at risk of triggering this flaw automatically without explicit user interaction beyond opening the malicious file. This highlights the importance of robust input validation in multimedia parsers to prevent exploitation through crafted files designed to exploit edge cases in decoding algorithms.
Apple has addressed this issue by implementing improved memory handling mechanisms within the affected operating systems and their respective versions, including iOS 26.6, iPadOS 26.6, iOS 26.7, iPadOS 26.7, macOS Sequoia 15.8, macOS Tahoe 26.6, macOS Tahoe 26.7, tvOS 26.6, and watchOS 26.6. These updates likely include enhanced bounds checking, stricter validation of video stream parameters, and improved memory allocation strategies to prevent the corruption scenarios described. To mitigate risks associated with this vulnerability before applying patches, users should avoid opening media files from untrusted sources and ensure that all devices are updated to the latest secure versions provided by Apple. Additionally, developers integrating multimedia frameworks into their applications should verify they are using patched libraries and implement additional defensive coding practices such as input sanitization and sandboxing to limit the blast radius of any potential exploitation attempts.