About the security content of macOS Monterey 12.3

This document describes the security content of macOS Monterey 12.3.

About Apple security updates

For our customers' protection, Apple doesn't disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available. Recent releases are listed on the Apple security updates page.

Apple security documents reference vulnerabilities by CVE-ID when possible.

For more information about security, see the Apple Product Security page.

macOS Monterey 12.3

Accelerate Framework

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Opening a maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22633: ryuzaki

AMD

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2022-22669: an anonymous researcher

AppKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to gain root privileges

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2022-22665: Lockheed Martin Red Team

AppleEvents

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A remote attacker may cause an unexpected app termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2022-22630: Jeremy Brown working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative

AppleGraphicsControl

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

Description: An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved bounds checking.

CVE-2022-22631: Wang Yu of cyberserval

AppleScript

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted AppleScript binary may result in unexpected application termination or disclosure of process memory

Description: An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2022-22625: Mickey Jin (@patch1t) of Trend Micro

AppleScript

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to read restricted memory

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2022-22648: Mickey Jin (@patch1t) of Trend Micro

AppleScript

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted AppleScript binary may result in unexpected application termination or disclosure of process memory

Description: An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved bounds checking.

CVE-2022-22626: Mickey Jin (@patch1t) of Trend Micro

CVE-2022-22627: Qi Sun and Robert Ai of Trend Micro

AppleScript

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted file may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2022-22597: Qi Sun and Robert Ai of Trend Micro

BOM

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A maliciously crafted ZIP archive may bypass Gatekeeper checks

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2022-22616: Ferdous Saljooki (@malwarezoo) and Jaron Bradley (@jbradley89) of Jamf Software, Mickey Jin (@patch1t)

CoreTypes

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may bypass Gatekeeper checks

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks to prevent unauthorized actions.

CVE-2022-22663: Arsenii Kostromin (0x3c3e)

CUPS

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-26691: Joshua Mason of Mandiant

curl

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Multiple issues in curl

Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to curl version 7.79.1.

CVE-2021-22946

CVE-2021-22947

CVE-2021-22945

FaceTime

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A user may send audio and video in a FaceTime call without knowing that they have done so

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2022-22643: Sonali Luthar of the University of Virginia, Michael Liao of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rohan Pahwa of Rutgers University, and Bao Nguyen of the University of Florida

GarageBand MIDI

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Opening a maliciously crafted file may lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory initialization issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2022-22657: Brandon Perry of Atredis Partners

GarageBand MIDI

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Opening a maliciously crafted file may lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved bounds checking.

CVE-2022-22664: Brandon Perry of Atredis Partners

Graphics Drivers

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A buffer overflow was addressed with improved bounds checking.

CVE-2021-30977: Jack Dates of RET2 Systems, Inc.

ImageIO

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2022-22611: Xingyu Jin of Google

ImageIO

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to heap corruption

Description: A memory consumption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2022-22612: Xingyu Jin of Google

Intel Graphics Driver

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A type confusion issue was addressed with improved state handling.

CVE-2022-46706: Wang Yu of Cyberserval, and Pan ZhenPeng (@Peterpan0927) of Alibaba Security Pandora Lab

Intel Graphics Driver

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A type confusion issue was addressed with improved state handling.

CVE-2022-22661: Wang Yu of Cyberserval and Pan ZhenPeng (@Peterpan0927) of Alibaba Security Pandora Lab

IOGPUFamily

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2022-22641: Mohamed Ghannam (@_simo36)

Kernel

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved bounds checking.

CVE-2022-22613: Alex, an anonymous researcher

Kernel

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2022-22614: an anonymous researcher

CVE-2022-22615: an anonymous researcher

Kernel

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22632: Keegan Saunders

Kernel

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An attacker in a privileged position may be able to perform a denial of service attack

Description: A null pointer dereference was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2022-22638: derrek (@derrekr6)

Kernel

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2022-22640: sqrtpwn

LaunchServices

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An app may be able to bypass certain Privacy preferences

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved restrictions.

CVE-2021-30946: @gorelics, and Ron Masas of BreakPoint.sh

libarchive

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Multiple issues in libarchive

Description: Multiple memory corruption issues existed in libarchive. These issues were addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2021-36976

LLVM

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to delete files for which it does not have permission

Description: A race condition was addressed with additional validation.

CVE-2022-21658: Florian Weimer (@fweimer)

Login Window

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A person with access to a Mac may be able to bypass Login Window

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2022-22647: Yuto Ikeda of Kyushu University

LoginWindow

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A local attacker may be able to view the previous logged in user’s desktop from the fast user switching screen

Description: An authentication issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22656

MobileAccessoryUpdater

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2022-22672: Siddharth Aeri (@b1n4r1b01)

NSSpellChecker

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to access information about a user's contacts

Description: A privacy issue existed in the handling of Contact cards. This was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22644: Thomas Roth (@stacksmashing) of leveldown security

PackageKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to modify protected parts of the file system

Description: A race condition was addressed with additional validation.

CVE-2022-26690: Mickey Jin (@patch1t) of Trend Micro

PackageKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious app with root privileges may be able to modify the contents of system files

Description: An issue in the handling of symlinks was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2022-26688: Mickey Jin (@patch1t) of Trend Micro

PackageKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22617: Mickey Jin (@patch1t)

Preferences

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to read other applications' settings

Description: The issue was addressed with additional permissions checks.

CVE-2022-22609: Mickey Jin (@patch1t), and Zhipeng Huo (@R3dF09) and Yuebin Sun (@yuebinsun2020) of Tencent Security Xuanwu Lab (xlab.tencent.com)

QuickTime Player

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A plug-in may be able to inherit the application's permissions and access user data

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2022-22650: Wojciech Reguła (@_r3ggi) of SecuRing

Safari Downloads

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A maliciously crafted ZIP archive may bypass Gatekeeper checks

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2022-22616: Ferdous Saljooki (@malwarezoo) and Jaron Bradley (@jbradley89) of Jamf Software, Mickey Jin (@patch1t)

Sandbox

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An app may be able to leak sensitive user information

Description: An access issue was addressed with improvements to the sandbox.

CVE-2022-22655: Csaba Fitzl (@theevilbit) of Offensive Security

Sandbox

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to bypass certain Privacy preferences

Description: The issue was addressed with improved permissions logic.

CVE-2022-22600: Sudhakar Muthumani (@sudhakarmuthu04) of Primefort Private Limited, Khiem Tran

Siri

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A person with physical access to a device may be able to use Siri to obtain some location information from the lock screen

Description: A permissions issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2022-22599: Andrew Goldberg of the University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business (linkedin.com/andrew-goldberg-/)

SMB

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause unexpected system termination or corrupt kernel memory

Description: An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved bounds checking.

CVE-2022-22651: Felix Poulin-Belanger

SoftwareUpdate

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22639: Mickey Jin (@patch1t)

System Preferences

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: An app may be able to spoof system notifications and UI

Description: This issue was addressed with a new entitlement.

CVE-2022-22660: Guilherme Rambo of Best Buddy Apps (rambo.codes)

UIKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A person with physical access to an iOS device may be able to see sensitive information via keyboard suggestions

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2022-22621: Joey Hewitt

Vim

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Multiple issues in Vim

Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating Vim.

CVE-2021-4136

CVE-2021-4166

CVE-2021-4173

CVE-2021-4187

CVE-2021-4192

CVE-2021-4193

CVE-2021-46059

CVE-2022-0128

CVE-2022-0156

CVE-2022-0158

VoiceOver

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A user may be able to view restricted content from the lock screen

Description: A lock screen issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2021-30918: an anonymous researcher

WebKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may disclose sensitive user information

Description: A cookie management issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22662: Prakash (@1lastBr3ath) of Threat Nix

WebKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22610: Quan Yin of Bigo Technology Live Client Team

WebKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2022-22624: Kirin (@Pwnrin) of Tencent Security Xuanwu Lab

CVE-2022-22628: Kirin (@Pwnrin) of Tencent Security Xuanwu Lab

WebKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A buffer overflow issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2022-22629: Jeonghoon Shin at Theori working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative

WebKit

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious website may cause unexpected cross-origin behavior

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2022-22637: Tom McKee of Google

Wi-Fi

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A malicious application may be able to leak sensitive user information

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved restrictions.

CVE-2022-22668: MrPhil17

xar

Available for: macOS Monterey

Impact: A local user may be able to write arbitrary files

Description: A validation issue existed in the handling of symlinks. This issue was addressed with improved validation of symlinks.

CVE-2022-22582: Richard Warren of NCC Group

Additional recognition

AirDrop

We would like to acknowledge Omar Espino (omespino.com), Ron Masas of BreakPoint.sh for their assistance.

Bluetooth

We would like to acknowledge an anonymous researcher, chenyuwang (@mzzzz__) of Tencent Security Xuanwu Lab for their assistance.

Disk Utility

We would like to acknowledge Csaba Fitzl (@theevilbit) of Offensive Security for their assistance.

Face Gallery

We would like to acknowledge Tian Zhang (@KhaosT) for their assistance.

Intel Graphics Driver

We would like to acknowledge Jack Dates of RET2 Systems, Inc., Yinyi Wu (@3ndy1) for their assistance.

Local Authentication

We would like to acknowledge an anonymous researcher for their assistance.

Notes

We would like to acknowledge Nathaniel Ekoniak of Ennate Technologies for their assistance.

Password Manager

We would like to acknowledge Maximilian Golla (@m33x) of Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) for their assistance.

Siri

We would like to acknowledge an anonymous researcher for their assistance.

syslog

We would like to acknowledge Yonghwi Jin (@jinmo123) of Theori for their assistance.

TCC

We would like to acknowledge Csaba Fitzl (@theevilbit) of Offensive Security for their assistance.

UIKit

We would like to acknowledge Tim Shadel of Day Logger, Inc. for their assistance.

WebKit

We would like to acknowledge Abdullah Md Shaleh for their assistance.

WebKit Storage

We would like to acknowledge Martin Bajanik of FingerprintJS for their assistance.