Vulnerabilities

WebKit Vulnerabilities Allow Remote Code Execution via Malicious Websites

The WebKit browser engine is affected by several vulnerabilities, including ones that can be exploited for remote code execution by convincing the targeted user to visit a malicious website.

WebKit is an open source engine that has been used by Safari and other Apple products, as well as many other apps for macOS, iOS and Linux.

Eduard Kovacs

November 30, 2020

The WebKit browser engine is affected by several vulnerabilities, including ones that can be exploited for remote code execution by convincing the targeted user to visit a malicious website.

WebKit is an open source engine that has been used by Safari and other Apple products, as well as many other apps for macOS, iOS and Linux.

Cisco’s Talos threat intelligence and research group revealed on Monday that one of its researchers identified several high-severity use-after-free vulnerabilities that can be exploited for remote code execution by getting the targeted user to access a specially crafted web page with a browser that uses WebKit.

The vulnerabilities are related to WebKit’s WebSocket, AudioSourceProviderGStreamer and ImageDecoderGStreamer functionality.

According to Talos, the flaws were reported this fall and they were patched earlier this month. The CVE identifiers CVE-2020-13584, CVE-2020-13558 and CVE-2020-13543 have been assigned.

An advisory published last week by the developers of WebKitGTK, a full-featured port of WebKit, and WPE, the WebKit implementation for embedded and low-consumption devices, mentions two code execution vulnerabilities found by Talos — one disclosed now and one disclosed in September — as well as several flaws reported by other researchers.

Talos has published detailed technical advisories for each of the vulnerabilities and the company has made available SNORT rules to help customers detect exploitation attempts.

Apple will likely patch the latest WebKit vulnerabilities with upcoming software updates.

Written By Eduard Kovacs

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

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