Apple has addressed two flaws, including one that allows iPad and iPhone users’ passwords to be read out loud by the VoiceOver feature. The critical logic flaw, designated CVE-2024-44204, which resides in the Passwords app, was fixed by Apple through improved validation.
The second, less severe vulnerability, designated CVE-2024-44207, allowed audio to be captured for several seconds before the microphone indicator was displayed on iPhone 16 models.
Both CVE-2024-44204 and CVE-2024-44207 were discovered by security researchers who responsibly disclosed the flaws to Apple.
Apple is recommending that all impacted users install the latest iPhone and iPad updates to secure their devices against any threat the vulnerabilities pose.
Source: The Hacker News
Analysis
Given the widespread use of Apple devices, especially in Western countries, any vulnerability in the devices could significantly impact cybersecurity. Fortunately, the two latest vulnerabilities were discovered by security researchers who disclosed them to Apple which took prompt actions to address them.
However, this isn’t always the case. For example, in 2024, several vulnerabilities in Apple’s iPhones and iPads were actively exploited in the wild as zero-days. These flaws included CVE-2024-23225 and CVE-2024-23296, memory corruption vulnerabilities that threat actors with kernel read and write access could exploit to bypass kernel-level memory protections, potentially leading to the installation of malicious apps and denial of service conditions.
On a separate occasion in 2023, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) ordered federal agencies to patch vulnerabilities in iOS, collectively known as BLASTPASS, that were observed being leveraged to deploy the NSO Group’s Pegasus malware on iPhones via an iMessage zero-click exploit.
Mitigation
Field Effect’s Security Intelligence professionals constantly monitor the cyber threat landscape for vulnerabilities discovered in operating systems like iOS. Field Effect MDR users were automatically notified if a vulnerable version of iOS was detected in their environment and are encouraged to review these AROs as quickly as possible via the Field Effect Portal.
Field Effect strongly recommends that impacted users update to the latest version of iOS as soon as possible.
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