Apple Patches BroadPwn Bug in iOS 10.3.3

Apple released iOS 10.3.3 Wednesday that serves as a cumulative patch update for multiple vulnerabilities including the high-profile BroadPwn bug.

Apple released iOS 10.3.3 Wednesday, which serves as a cumulative update that includes patches for multiple vulnerabilities including the high-profile BroadPwn bug that allowed an attacker to seize control of a targeted iOS device.

BroadPwn was revealed earlier this month as a flaw in Broadcom Wi-Fi chipsets used in Apple and Android devices. Apple said the vulnerability affected the iPhone 5 to iPhone 7, the fourth-generation iPad and later versions, and the iPod Touch 6th generation.

Exodus Intelligence discovered the flaw (CVE-2017-3544), which was patched earlier this month on Android when Google released its July Android Security Bulletin. Nitay Artenstein, the researcher with Exodus Intelligence who discovered the vulnerability, is scheduled to do a talk on the vulnerability at Black Hat next week.

Yesterday’s Apple security updates also included fixes for its tvOS, iTunes and iCloud for Windows, the Safari browser, watchOS and macOS Sierra.

In addition to patching the BroadPwn vulnerability, Apple addressed 13 arbitrary code execution vulnerabilities tied to everything from a buffer overflow bug found in the Contacts (CVE-2017-7062) app and a memory corruption issue (CVE-2017-7009) in the CoreAudio component of the OS.

The open source web browser engine WebKit was also patched by Apple. One WebKit vulnerability (CVE-2017-7011) allowed an attacker to use a malicious website that could lead to an “address bar spoofing” attack. A second (CVE-2017-7019) WebKit memory corruption issue allowed an attacker to maliciously craft web content that could lead to arbitrary code execution on a targeted iOS device.

“The issue involves the ‘WebKit Page Loading’ component. It allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) via a crafted web site,” wrote Apple regarding CVE-2017-7019.

On Wednesday, Apple also released patches for macOS Sierra 10.12.6, as well as Security Update 2017-003 for El Capitan and Security Update 2017-003 for Yosemite. Four CVEs were associated with a memory corruption issue tied to all macOS operating systems. The vulnerability (CVE-2017-7031) is an “issue that involves the ‘Foundation’ component. It allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) via a crafted file,” according to Apple.

Apple also released iCloud for Windows 6.2.2 that addressed almost a dozen CVEs tied to bugs found by Google Project Zero researchers. Researcher Ivan Fratric, with Google Project Zero, is behind eight of the CVEs. Most of the bugs he found are related to iCloud memory corruption issues in WebKit. The flaw allowed the processing of maliciously crafted web content within the app that could lead to arbitrary code execution.

Apple’s watchOS 3.2.3 release snuffed out a number of bugs including one interesting vulnerability tied to the operating system’s libxml2 library, responsible for manipulating XML content, that impacted all watch models. “Parsing a maliciously crafted XML document may lead to disclosure of user information,” described Apple (CVE-2017-7013).

A memory corruption bug was patched in Apple’s tvOS (CVE-2017-7008) that could lead to arbitrary code execution if a maliciously crafted movie file was played on the device, Apple said.

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