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Apple Patches Code Execution Vulnerabilities Across Product Portfolio

Security patches released this week by Apple for many of its products address a variety of vulnerabilities, including multiple issues that could lead to arbitrary code execution on the affected devices.

Security patches released this week by Apple for many of its products address a variety of vulnerabilities, including multiple issues that could lead to arbitrary code execution on the affected devices.

A total of 27 bugs were squashed with the release of macOS Catalina 10.15.4, affecting components such as Bluetooth, Call History, CoreFoundation, FaceTime, Kernel, libxml2, Mail, sudo, and Time Machine, among others.

The patched flaws could result in the execution of arbitrary code with system or kernel privileges, leak of kernel memory, privilege escalation, leak of sensitive information, disclosure of restricted memory, or code signing bypass.

The vulnerabilities were discovered in macOS Catalina 10.15.3, but some of them also impact macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and macOS Mojave 10.14.6, Apple explains in an advisory. Security updates are being rolled out for all of the impacted platform releases.

Patches for a total of 30 vulnerabilities were included in the iOS 13.4 and iPadOS 13.4 security update, for components such as ActionKit, Bluetooth, CoreFoundation, Icons, Image Processing, Kernel, libxml2, Mail, Mail Attachments, Messages, Safari, Web App, and WebKit.

The bugs could lead to the interception of Bluetooth traffic, privilege escalation, arbitrary code execution, leak of restricted memory, leak of sensitive information, or unwanted interference between applications, among others.

WebKit was impacted the most, with a total of nine vulnerabilities addressed. These bugs could allow an application to read restricted memory, could allow an attacker to execute code remotely, and may lead to cross-site scripting.

Of the 20 vulnerabilities addressed with the release of tvOS 13.4 this week, nine are the aforementioned security flaws in WebKit. The remaining flaws impact ActionKit, AppleMobileFileIntegrity, Icons, Image Processing, IOHIDFamily, Kernel, libxml2, and WebKit Page Loading.

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Apple patched 17 vulnerabilities with the rollout of watchOS 6.2, including four in WebKit. Other impacted components include ActionKit, AppleMobileFileIntegrity, CoreFoundation, Icons, Image Processing, IOHIDFamily, Kernel, libxml2, and Messages.

Safari 13.1 was made available with fixes for 11 security issues, including the nine bugs patched in WebKit. The other two flaws impact Safari Downloads and WebKit Page Loading. The patches are available for macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra, and are included in macOS Catalina, Apple says.

The Cupertino-based company also released iTunes 12.10.5 for Windows this week, with patches for 13 vulnerabilities. These include nine bugs in WebKit, three in libxml2, and one in WebKit Page Loading.

This week, Apple also announced the release of Xcode 11.4, which brings some security improvements, and iOS 12.4.6 and watchOS 5.3.6, which do not patch any vulnerabilities.

Related: Apple Patches Tens of Vulnerabilities in iOS, macOS Catalina

Related: Apple Patches Over 50 Vulnerabilities in macOS Catalina

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

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