Apple on Monday released patches for a vulnerability in WebKit that could allow attackers to execute code remotely on affected devices.
Tracked as CVE-2021-1844 and co-reported by Clément Lecigne of Google’s Threat Analysis Group and Alison Huffman of Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research, the flaw was addressed with software updates for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and Safari.
To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would simply need to craft a webpage containing malicious code, and then lure the victim into accessing that webpage, which would trigger the execution of code onto the victim’s machine.
“Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution,” Apple notes. “A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved validation,” the company continues.
The issue exists because the processing of specific content in WebKit could lead to a boundary error. Once the victim accesses the attacker-crafted page, the memory corruption would be triggered, resulting in the execution of arbitrary code.
An attacker able to successfully exploit the vulnerability may essentially compromise the victim’s vulnerable system in its entirety.
Apple has addressed the vulnerability with the release of macOS Big Sur 11.2.3, iOS 14.4.1 and iPadOS 14.4.1 (for iPhone 6s and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad mini 4 and later, and iPod touch (7th generation), watchOS 7.3.2, and Safari 14.0.3 (for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave).
Users are advised to apply the available updates as soon as possible, to ensure their systems remain protected. Apple hasn’t provided information on whether the flaw is already being exploited in the wild.
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