Apple on Monday released security patches to address a zero-day vulnerability that had been used to jailbreak iPhones running iOS 13.5.
Tracked as CVE-2020-9859, the vulnerability was found in the iOS kernel and it can allow an application to achieve unsandboxed, kernel-level code execution.
An exploit for the issue was added to the unc0ver 5.0 jailbreak utility, which was released to support devices running iOS 11 through 13.5 (excluding versions 12.3-12.3.2 and 12.4.2-12.4.5).
In an alert published last week, the CERT Coordination Center warned that the security flaw might also impact modern iOS devices with CPUs that support Pointer Authentication Code (PAC).
One week later, Apple has released security patches to fix the issue, revealing that the root cause of the bug was memory consumption and that improved memory handling would address it.
The Cupertino-based tech company also confirmed that the vulnerability indeed could have been exploited by applications to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.
Apple says the flaw was patched with the release of iOS 13.5.1 and iPadOS 13.5.1, now rolling out to iPhone 6s and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad mini 4 and later, and iPod touch 7th generation.
Additionally, the company released updates for macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and macOS Catalina 10.15.5 (macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Supplemental Update, Security Update 2020-003 High Sierra), Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD (tvOS 13.4.6), and Apple Watch Series 1 and later (watchOS 6.2.6) to patch the vulnerability.
Pwn20wnd, the team of developers behind unc0ver, confirmed that iOS 13.5.1 patches the vulnerability exploited by their tool, while also warning users that they should refrain from updating if they want to keep their devices jailbroken.
“I can confirm the new *OS updates have patched the kernel vulnerability used by the #unc0ver jailbreak,” the team said in a tweet.
Users with eligible iOS devices looking to install the latest platform release can download it over-the-air by heading to Settings > General > Software Update.
Related: Jailbreak Tool Updated to Unlock iPhones Running iOS 13.5
Related: Apple Patches Over 40 Vulnerabilities in macOS Catalina
Related: Apple Finds No Evidence of Attacks Targeting iOS Mail App Vulnerabilities
