Patch/Configuration Management, Vulnerability Management

Apple releases OS X, iOS, Safari updates, multiple bugs addressed

Apple addressed numerous vulnerabilities with the release of OS X El Capitan v10.11, iOS 9.0.2, and Safari 9 this week.

The technology company addressed about 100 vulnerabilities in OS X El Capitan v10.11, including denial-of-service, information disclosure and other bugs in Address Book, AirScan, Finder, Game Center, Kernel, Mail, Notes, OpenSSH, OpenSSL, SQLite, Time Machine and more, a post indicated.

Successful exploitation of some of the vulnerabilities – including bugs in CoreText, libc, and PHP – could enable remote or local code execution. For example, multiple memory corruption issues in ‘tidy' could lead to arbitrary code execution if a user visits a maliciously crafted website.

According to a second post, iOS 9.0.2 only addresses a single vulnerability. The flaw, CVE-2015-5923, could enable a person with physical access to the device to access photos and contacts from the lock screen – all without needing the passcode.

“This issue was addressed by restricting options offered on a locked device,” the post said.

Exploiting the vulnerability – which was first demonstrated in a YouTube video posted in September – requires entering the wrong passcode a number of times, asking Siri for the time, and leveraging her response to navigate to the photos and contacts.

With the release of Safari 9, Apple also addressed about 45 vulnerabilities in its web browser. Several of the vulnerabilities are memory corruption issues in WebKit, where visiting a maliciously crafted website could lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

However, one issue with WebKit's Performance API “could have allowed a malicious website to leak browsing history, network activity, and mouse movements by measuring time,” a third post said. “This issue was addressed by limiting time resolution.”

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