Apple watchOS up to 7.6.2 libexpat denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in Apple watchOS up to 7.6.2. Impacted is an unknown function of the component libexpat. This manipulation causes denial of service. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2013-0340. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic was found in Apple watchOS up to 7.6.2 (Smartwatch Operating System). Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown processing of the component libexpat. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

expat before version 2.4.0 does not properly handle entities expansion unless an application developer uses the XML_SetEntityDeclHandler function, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption), send HTTP requests to intranet servers, or read arbitrary files via a crafted XML document, aka an XML External Entity (XXE) issue. NOTE: it could be argued that because expat already provides the ability to disable external entity expansion, the responsibility for resolving this issue lies with application developers; according to this argument, this entry should be REJECTed, and each affected application would need its own CVE.

The weakness was presented 09/20/2021 as HT212819 as confirmed advisory (Website). The advisory is shared at support.apple.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2013-0340. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1499 for this issue. The advisory points out:

A remote attacker may be able to cause a denial of service

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 276721 (RHEL 9 : expat (RHSA-2025:22035)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 8.0 eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published immediately after the disclosure of the vulnerability. The advisory contains the following remark:

This issue was addressed by updating expat to version 2.4.1.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (276721). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Smartwatch Operating System

Vendor

• Apple

Name

• watchOS

Version

• 7.6.0
• 7.6.1
• 7.6.2

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.apple.com/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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