Apple has released software patches for over 127 different vulnerabilities, across several of the different apple products. Some of these vulnerabilities could lead to remote code execution, which allows attackers to execute code on the target machine. In addition to this, a few of them have been classified as critical vulnerabilities that pose a high risk to the users of these products. Here is a breakdown of some of the most critical vulnerabilities:
Most Critical Vulnerabilities
CVE-2022-32832
This is an APFS (Apple file system )vulnerability that could allow an app with root privileges to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Kernel privileges are especially dangerous because this means the code has unlimited access to system resources like hardware, memory etc. This means with kernel privileges a hacker can circumvent the security controls of the operating system and potentially infect the machine to the point that it will be very difficult to ever remove that malware.
CVE-2022-32788
This is a buffer overflow vulnerability that allows a remote user to execute kernel code using Apple AVD. Apple AVD is a framework for working with audiovisual media on IOS and macOS. A buffer overflow is a memory-based attack that manipulates memory processing in an application to execute code on a target system.
CVE-2022-32826
This is an authorization flaw that allows an app to get root privileges through the AppleMobileFileIntegrity kernel extension. Once an application has root privileges it can be used to perform more dangerous attacks on the system.
CVE-2022-32820
An out-of-bounds write vulnerability allows an app to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges through the audio extension. An out-of-bounds vulnerability is where someone writes data past the end or the beginning of the application’s intended buffer. This leads to data corruption, crash or code execution.
CVE-2022-32839
This is a vulnerability in the CoreText extension that allows a remote user to cause an unexpected app termination or arbitrary code execution. Arbitrary code execution can be dangerous because it allows the attacker to pass commands to the target system.
Affected Apple Products
- macOS Big Sur versions earlier than or equal to 11.6.8.
- macOS Monterey versions earlier than or equal to12.5.
- macOS Catalina.
- iOS and iPadOS versions are earlier than or equal to15.6.
- Safari for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina versions earlier than or equal to15.6.
Mitigation
Fortunately, none of these are zero-day vulnerabilities so all that is required for mitigation is applying the latest Apple security updates to the affected products.
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