Apple on Thursday pushed out an urgent point-update to its flagship iOS and macOS platforms to fix a pair of security defects being exploited in the wild.
The vulnerabilities, fixed in the latest iOS 16.6.1 and macOS Ventura 13.5.2 releases, are credited to the Citizen Lab at The University of Torontoʼs Munk School, suggesting exploitation in commercial surveillance spyware products.
The Citizen Lab at The University of Torontoʼs Munk School actively tracks PSOAs (private sector offensive actors) and the expanding market for companies that sell hacking and exploitation tools and services.
According to an advisory from Cupertino’s security response team, both flaws could be exploited via rigged image files to launch code execution attacks.
From the bulletin:
- CVE-2023-41064 (ImageIO) — A Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited. A buffer overflow issue was addressed with improved memory handling.
- CVE-2023-41061 (Wallet) — A maliciously crafted attachment may result in arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited. A validation issue was addressed with improved logic.
Emergency patches for zero-day iOS and macOS flaws have become a regular occurrence as Apple struggles to keep pace with highly skilled attackers.
So far this year, Apple has rolled out fixes for 13 documented in-the-wild zero-days in iOS, iPadOS and macOS platforms. The company has also shipped ‘Lockdown Mode’ in direct response to these attacks but the pace of exploitation has not slowed.
