Newly-patched bug in iOS & macOS might have been exploited

The new iOS, iPadOS and macOS Ventura patches from Friday fix two security issues, one of which appears to have been exploited.

The company issued updates for iOS 16.4.1 and macOS Ventura 13.3.1 on Friday. They fixed the Apple Watch auto-unlock feature on Mac and an issue with Siri responsiveness.

Next, as is typical with new Apple releases, the company also updated its webpage for security updates. The two releases contain the same security patches, as discovered by Clement Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Donncha O Cearbhaill of Amnesty International's Security Lab.

Patches for iOS & macOS

Users can update their operating systems by going to Settings > General > Software Update on their iPhones and Macs.

IOSurfaceAccelerator

Available for: macOS Ventura, iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later.
Impact: An app may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
Description: An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved input validation.
CVE-2023-28206: Clement Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Donncha O Cearbhaill of Amnesty International's Security Lab.

WebKit

Available for: macOS Ventura, iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later.
Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.
CVE-2023-28205: Clement Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Donncha O Cearbhaill of Amnesty International's Security Lab.

6 Comments

🕯️

DAalseth 6 Years · 3071 comments

About 1 year ago

I hate to say this but proceed with caution on this one. After updating Safari on my iPad is severely Fed up. If I tap on links they don’t open, they are added to my reading list. I have to hold them long enough for the thumbnail to pop up and then tap on the thumbnail.

EDIT: Ok, another reboot seems to have cleared things, but be prepared.

🌟

ForumPost 6 Years · 85 comments

DAalseth said:

I hate to say this but proceed with caution on this one. After updating Safari on my iPad is severely Fed up. If I tap on links they don’t open, they are added to my reading list. I have to hold them long enough for the thumbnail to pop up and then tap on the thumbnail.

EDIT: Ok, another reboot seems to have cleared things, but be prepared.

I have this issue for a while now, well before this (I think since v14.0). If I tap on a link from an email it opens up safari but stops there. Blank page. Only after I repeat the same sequence it will load up the linked page and display the result.

🎅

M68000 7 Years · 887 comments

Just had a very strange thing happen after updating my 13 mini. I had over 50% battery and was not using phone much after the update. I went to bed and now the next morning phone would not come on showing the connect charging cable message. I hooked up the charging cable and phone was drained but started charging. This is first time I’ve ever seen such a thing after and iOS update.

☕️

AppleZulu 8 Years · 2207 comments

M68000 said:

Just had a very strange thing happen after updating my 13 mini. I had over 50% battery and was not using phone much after the update. I went to bed and now the next morning phone would not come on showing the connect charging cable message. I hooked up the charging cable and phone was drained but started charging. This is first time I’ve ever seen such a thing after and iOS update.

Sometimes there's a fair amount of tidying up in the background after an update. I noted that following the 16.4 update, it came back with the "hello" screen that usually only shows after a major annual OS update. That suggests to me that 16.4 was a more significant update than usual. So if you were on 16.3.x and updated to 16.4.1, your battery drain was probably just the aforementioned 'tidying up.'

🎁

AppleZulu said:

M68000 said:

Just had a very strange thing happen after updating my 13 mini. I had over 50% battery and was not using phone much after the update. I went to bed and now the next morning phone would not come on showing the connect charging cable message. I hooked up the charging cable and phone was drained but started charging. This is first time I’ve ever seen such a thing after and iOS update.

Sometimes there's a fair amount of tidying up in the background after an update. I noted that following the 16.4 update, it came back with the "hello" screen that usually only shows after a major annual OS update. That suggests to me that 16.4 was a more significant update than usual. So if you were on 16.3.x and updated to 16.4.1, your battery drain was probably just the aforementioned 'tidying up.'

Was on 16.4 and about 55% battery when going to bed, it drained off during 8 hours sleep. but maybe just a one off issue. Storage seemed to increase by about 3gb the next day. Also, maybe I’m imagining it or maybe the latest iOS is faster than earlier versions. Phone is very responsive, seems better.