Apple iOS/iPadOS up to 18.7.6/26.1 Activation Lock path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Apple iOS and iPadOS up to 18.7.6/26.1. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component Activation Lock. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2025-43534. It is possible to launch the attack on the physical device. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Apple iOS and iPadOS up to 18.7.6/26.1 and classified as critical. This issue affects an unknown code of the component Activation Lock. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A path handling issue was addressed with improved validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 18.7.7 and iPadOS 18.7.7, iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2. A user with physical access to an iOS device may be able to bypass Activation Lock.

It is possible to read the advisory at support.apple.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-43534 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. Attacking locally is a requirement. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 03/29/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1006 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading to version 18.7.7 or 26.2 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CNNVD (CNNVD-202603-5239). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Smartphone Operating System

Vendor

• Apple

Name

• iOS
• iPadOS

Version

• 18.7.0
• 18.7.1
• 18.7.2
• 18.7.3
• 18.7.4
• 18.7.5
• 18.7.6
• 26.0
• 26.1

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.apple.com/

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CPE 2.2info

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

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