Apple iOS up to 12.1.4 Kernel buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Apple iOS up to 12.1.4 and classified as critical. Impacted is an unknown function of the component Kernel. This manipulation causes buffer overflow. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2019-8527. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in Apple iOS up to 12.1.4 (Smartphone Operating System). Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown part of the component Kernel. 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 was addressed with improved size validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 12.2, macOS Mojave 10.14.4, tvOS 12.2, watchOS 5.2. A remote attacker may be able to cause unexpected system termination or corrupt kernel memory.

The bug was discovered 03/25/2019. The weakness was disclosed 03/25/2019 by Jakub Wilk with Google as HT209599 as confirmed advisory (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at support.apple.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2019-8527 since 02/18/2019. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $25k-$100k 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 was addressed with improved size validation.

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†). The entries VDB-119252, VDB-132233, VDB-132234 and VDB-132235 are pretty similar. Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source 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

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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