Apple’s struggles with zero-day attacks on its iOS and macOS platforms are showing no signs of slowing down.
For the second time in as many months, Cupertino released iOS, iPadOS and macOS updates to address a critical WebKit security defect (CVE-2022-22620) that exposes Apple devices to remote code execution attacks.
“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,” the company said in a barebones advisory.
As is customary, Apple did not provide details on the scope of the attack, the platform being targeted, or any indicators of compromise to help defenders look for signs of infections.
[ READ: Apple Ships Urgent Patch for FORCEDENTRY Zero-Days ]
The WebKit flaw, fixed in iOS 15.3.1, iPadOS 15.3.1 and macOS Monterey 12.2.1, is a use-after-free memory corruption issue that was reported by an anonymous researcher. Apple said the WebKit code was cleaned up with improved memory management.
This is the second “actively exploited” zero-day fixed by Apple in the first two months of 2022. Late last month, the company used the same language in the disclosure of zero-day exploits hitting a memory corruption issue in IOMobileFrameBuffer, an oft-targeted iOS kernel extension.
Earlier this week, Malware hunters at Microsoft called attention to a nasty macOS malware family that has evolved quickly from a basic information-gathering trojan to a stealthy backdoor with more powerful capabilities.
Related: Apple Ships Urgent Patch for FORCEDENTRY Zero-Days
Related: Microsoft Says Mac Trojan Becoming Stealthier, More Menacing
Related: New iOS Zero-Click Exploit Defeats Apple ‘BlastDoor’ Sandbox
Related: Apple Patches ‘Actively Exploited’ iOS Security Flaw
Ryan Naraine is Editor-at-Large at SecurityWeek and host of the popular Security Conversations podcast series. He is a journalist and cybersecurity strategist with more than 20 years experience covering IT security and technology trends.
Ryan has built security engagement programs at major global brands, including Intel Corp., Bishop Fox and Kaspersky GReAT. He is a co-founder of Threatpost and the global SAS conference series. Ryan’s career as a journalist includes bylines at major technology publications including Ziff Davis eWEEK, CBS Interactive’s ZDNet, PCMag and PC World.
Ryan is a director of the Security Tinkerers non-profit, and a regular speaker at security conferences around the world.
Follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanaraine.
Tags:
