Apple iOS up to 12.1.4 Contacts buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Apple iOS up to 12.1.4. It has been classified as critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component Contacts. This manipulation causes buffer overflow. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2019-8511. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Apple iOS up to 12.1.4 (Smartphone Operating System). It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code block of the component Contacts. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-120. The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A buffer overflow issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in iOS 12.2, macOS Mojave 10.14.4, watchOS 5.2. A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges.

The bug was discovered 03/25/2019. The weakness was published 03/25/2019 by Jakub Wilk as HT209599 as confirmed advisory (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at support.apple.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2019-8511 since 02/18/2019. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/20/2020). It is expected to see the exploit prices for this product increasing in the near future. The advisory points out:

A buffer overflow issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 371712 (Apple macOS Mojave 10.14.4, Security Update 2019-002 High Sierra, Security Update 2019-002 Sierra Not Installed (APPLE-SA-2019-3-25-2)).

Upgrading to version 12.2 eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published immediately after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at SecurityFocus (BID 104423†). Similar entries are available at VDB-119252, VDB-132233, VDB-132234 and VDB-132236. Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Smartphone Operating System

Vendor

• Apple

Name

• iOS

Version

• 12.1.0
• 12.1.1
• 12.1.2
• 12.1.3
• 12.1.4

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.apple.com/

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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