Apple released a new set of security patches this week to resolve multiple vulnerabilities in iOS, macOS Sierra, Safari, tvOS, and watchOS.
iOS 10.1 was released with patches for 13 vulnerabilities found in components such as CFNetwork Proxies, CoreGraphics, FaceTime, FontParser, Kernel, libarchive, libxpc, Sandbox Profiles, Security, System Boot, and WebKit. The operating system update impacts iPhone 5 and later, iPad 4th generation and later, and iPod touch 6th generation and later, Apple said in its advisory.
Attackers exploiting these vulnerabilities could run arbitrary code on the affected devices, could leak sensitive user information, could disclose kernel memory, could execute arbitrary code with root privileges, overwrite arbitrary files, or observe the length of a login password when a user logs in. Two issues in Sandbox Profiles could allow an application to retrieve metadata of photo directories or metadata of audio recording directories.
A bug in FaceTime could allow an attacker in a privileged network position to cause a relayed call to continue transmitting audio while appearing as if the call terminated, Apple reveals. A bug in System Boot could allow a local user to cause an unexpected system termination or arbitrary code execution in the kernel, while two issues in WebKit could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing maliciously crafted web content.
macOS Sierra 10.12.1 was released with patches for 16 vulnerabilities affecting components such as AppleGraphicsControl, AppleSMC, ATS, CFNetwork Proxies, CoreGraphics, FaceTime, FontParser, ImageIO, libarchive, libxpc, ntfs, NVIDIA Graphics Drivers, Security, and System Boot.
Working exploits for these security issues could result in the execution of arbitrary code with kernel privileges or with additional privileges, elevation of privileges, arbitrary code execution, leaking sensitive user information, disclosure of process memory, and denial of service.
macOS was also impacted by the FaceTime flaw that affects iOS devices too, as well as by the aforementioned bugs that allow a local attacker to observe the length of a login password when a user logs in, or cause an unexpected system termination or arbitrary code execution in the kernel, Apple’s advisory reveals.
The newly released Safari 10.0.1 was meant to resolve three vulnerabilities in WebKit, Apple says. The first (CVE-2016-4613) could result in the disclosure of user information when maliciously crafted web content is processed, while the other two (CVE-2016-4666 and CVE-2016-4677) could lead to arbitrary code execution in the same circumstances.
Apple also released tvOS 10.0.1 to resolve 12 vulnerabilities affecting Apple TV (4th generation), and watchOS 3.1 to patch 8 security bugs in Apple Watch models. All of these bugs were found in iOS and macOS as well.