Overview

CVE-2025-43342 is a potent cybersecurity vulnerability that has been identified in several Apple operating systems. These operating systems include tvOS 26, Safari 26, iOS 18.7 and iPadOS 18.7, visionOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. This vulnerability is critical due to its potential to cause an unexpected process crash when processing maliciously crafted web content. Consequently, this could lead to a potential system compromise or data leakage, which can have severe implications for both individual users and organizations.
This blog post aims to provide a comprehensive technical breakdown of this vulnerability, its impacts, and the recommended mitigation strategies. It’s crucial for all users and administrators of the affected operating systems to understand the gravity of this vulnerability and take immediate action to prevent potential exploitation.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-43342
Severity: Critical (9.8 CVSS Severity Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

tvOS | 26
Safari | 26
iOS | 18.7, 26
iPadOS | 18.7, 26
visionOS | 26
watchOS | 26
macOS Tahoe | 26

How the Exploit Works

An attacker exploiting the CVE-2025-43342 vulnerability would craft malicious web content to be processed by the user’s device. This could be in the form of a website, an email, or any other web content that the device could process. When the malicious content is processed, it triggers a correctness issue in the software that leads to an unexpected process crash. This crash can then be exploited by the attacker to compromise the system or leak data.

Conceptual Example Code

Here’s a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This is a sample HTTP request that carries the malicious payload:

GET /malicious_website.html HTTP/1.1
Host: attacker.example.com
{ "malicious_payload": "<script>exploit_code_here</script>" }

In this example, the code inside “ tags represents the malicious code that exploits the CVE-2025-43342 vulnerability. When the device processes this request, the malicious script runs, triggering the unexpected process crash and potentially compromising the system or leaking data.

Mitigation Guidance

Users and administrators can mitigate the risks of the CVE-2025-43342 vulnerability by applying the vendor patch provided by Apple. If the patch cannot be applied immediately, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure by detecting and blocking attempts to exploit this vulnerability.