CVE-2026-65358 in iPadOS
Summary
by MITRE • 09/15/2026
A race condition was addressed with improved state handling. This issue is fixed in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, macOS Tahoe 26.7, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, watchOS 27. An app may be able to cause unexpected system termination.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/15/2026
The disclosed vulnerability represents a race condition within the operating system's core state management mechanisms, specifically affecting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS platforms in their respective latest versions including iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, and others listed. A race condition occurs when a system's behavior depends on the relative timing of multiple events, such as the order in which threads are scheduled or operations are executed. In this context, the flaw lies in how the operating system handles concurrent access to shared resources or state variables without adequate synchronization primitives like locks or atomic operations. When an application triggers these specific code paths rapidly or under precise timing conditions, it can manipulate the internal state of the system into an inconsistent or invalid configuration that was not anticipated by the developers during design and testing phases.
From a technical perspective, this issue is classified under CWE-362, which defines concurrent execution using shared resources with improper synchronization as a race condition vulnerability. The lack of proper locking mechanisms allows malicious or poorly coded applications to exploit the window of time between checking a condition and acting on it, often referred to as Time-of-check to Time-of-use (TOCTOU). By carefully crafting requests that arrive at critical junctures in the system's lifecycle, an attacker can force the operating system into a state where memory management or process control structures become corrupted. This corruption undermines the integrity of the kernel and user-space interactions, leading to unpredictable behavior rather than controlled error handling.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant for both end-users and enterprise environments relying on these Apple platforms. As noted in the advisory, an app may be able to cause unexpected system termination. This manifests as a denial-of-service scenario where the stability of the device is compromised without requiring elevated privileges or complex exploitation chains beyond triggering the specific race condition. For mobile devices running iOS and iPadOS, this could result in frequent reboots, rendering the device unusable for critical tasks such as communication or productivity applications. On macOS systems like Sequoia or Tahoe, system termination can lead to data loss if unsaved work is present, disruption of long-running server processes, or degradation of overall system performance due to constant restarts and resource reallocation overhead.
This type of vulnerability aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK framework technique T1499, Endpoint Denial of Service, specifically under sub-techniques that involve resource exhaustion or instability through software vulnerabilities. While typically associated with more complex exploits, race conditions leading to crashes are a common vector for achieving availability impacts in mobile and desktop operating systems. The ability to crash the system from an unprivileged application highlights a failure in privilege separation boundaries, where user-space applications can exert enough influence over kernel-level state handling to destabilize the entire platform. This underscores the importance of robust input validation and strict concurrency controls within the OS core components that manage process states and resource allocation.
Mitigation strategies primarily involve applying the provided software updates which address these issues through improved state handling logic. Developers should ensure they are running iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, macOS Tahoe 26.7, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, or watchOS 27 to benefit from the patched synchronization mechanisms. For system administrators and enterprise mobility managers, it is crucial to enforce timely patching cycles across all managed devices to prevent potential denial-of-service attacks that could disrupt business operations. Additionally, application developers should review their code for any concurrent access patterns involving shared resources and implement proper locking strategies or atomic operations to prevent similar race conditions in future releases. Security teams should monitor for indicators of compromise related to abnormal system restarts or kernel panics on unpatched devices as a potential sign of exploitation attempts targeting this specific flaw.