Overview
The CVE-2025-43209 vulnerability is a high-risk cybersecurity threat that affects a variety of Apple’s operating systems. The flaw originates from an out-of-bounds access issue that was addressed by introducing improved bounds checking. This vulnerability has the potential to compromise systems or lead to data leakage, highlighting the need for immediate attention and swift mitigation. Given the widespread use of Apple products, the impact of this vulnerability could be extensive, impacting individual users, corporations, and even government entities.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-43209
Severity: Critical (CVSS: 9.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
macOS Sequoia | 15.6
iPadOS | 17.7.9
iOS | 18.6
tvOS | 18.6
macOS Sonoma | 14.7.7
watchOS | 11.6
visionOS | 2.6
macOS Ventura | 13.7.7
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability hinges on an out-of-bounds access issue, which happens when data is read or written from a buffer using an index or pointer that does not fall within the valid range of the buffer’s boundaries. This particular vulnerability manifests itself when processing maliciously crafted web content, which can lead to an unexpected crash of the Safari browser.
A successful exploit could leverage this vulnerability to potentially execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the affected software. This could lead to a full system compromise or data leakage if the user has administrative privileges.
Conceptual Example Code
The following is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited using a malicious JavaScript payload:
GET /vulnerable_page.html HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
<script>
var buffer = new ArrayBuffer(128);
var int8View = new Int8Array(buffer);
for (var i = 0; i < 128; i++) {
int8View[i] = i * 2; // Fill the buffer with data
}
int8View[200] = 0; // Out-of-bounds write
</script>This code attempts to write to an index that is outside the valid range of the buffer, resulting in an out-of-bounds access. An attacker could potentially use this to corrupt memory and execute arbitrary code.