Updates released by Apple on Wednesday for the Safari web browser address several security holes, including ones that could lead to arbitrary code execution.
Safari 8.0.6, Safari 7.1.6, and Safari 6.2.6 fix three WebKit memory corruption issues found by Apple’s own security team. The flaws, identified as CVE-2015-1152, CVE-2015-1153 and CVE-2015-1154, can be leveraged by malicious actors to cause applications to crash and possibly even for remote code execution. Apple said it addressed the issues through improved memory handling.
Apple has also fixed a security bug discovered by Rapid7 researcher Joe Vennix, who reported his findings through HP’s Zero Day Initiative. According to Apple’s advisory, Vennix identified a state management issue (CVE-2015-1155) that allowed unprivileged origins to access contents on the file system.
An attacker can exploit this vulnerability to compromise user information on the file system by setting up a malicious website. Apple resolved the bug through improved state management.
The latest versions of Safari also patch a WebKit page loading vulnerability identified by Zachary Durber of Moodle (CVE-2015-1156).
“An issue existed in the handling of the rel attribute in anchor elements. Target objects could get unauthorized access to link objects. This issue was addressed through improved link type adherence,” Apple said in its advisory.
An attacker can exploit the vulnerability for user interface spoofing by tricking victims into clicking on a link.
The updates are available for OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5, OS X Mavericks v10.9.5, and OS X Yosemite v10.10.3. Users are advised to update their installations as soon as possible.
Last month, Apple attempted to resolve the OS X privilege escalation vulnerability dubbed “rootpipe.” However, researchers have found ways to bypass Apple’s fix.
