About the security content of watchOS 9.3

This document describes the security content of watchOS 9.3.

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.

watchOS 9.3

AppleMobileFileIntegrity

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An app may be able to bypass Privacy preferences

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

CVE-2023-32438: Csaba Fitzl (@theevilbit) of Offensive Security and Mickey Jin (@patch1t)

AppleMobileFileIntegrity

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An app may be able to access user-sensitive data

Description: This issue was addressed by enabling hardened runtime.

CVE-2023-23499: Wojciech Regula of SecuRing (wojciechregula.blog)

Crash Reporter

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: A user may be able to read arbitrary files as root

Description: A race condition was addressed with additional validation.

CVE-2023-23520: Cees Elzinga

FontParser

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: Processing a font file may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.7.1.

Description: The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches.

CVE-2023-41990: Apple

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: Processing an image may lead to a denial-of-service

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

CVE-2023-23519: Meysam Firouzi @R00tkitSMM of Mbition Mercedes-Benz Innovation Lab, Yiğit Can YILMAZ (@yilmazcanyigit), and jzhu working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An app may be able to leak sensitive kernel state

Description: The issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2023-23500: Pan ZhenPeng (@Peterpan0927) of STAR Labs SG Pte. Ltd. (@starlabs_sg)

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An app may be able to determine kernel memory layout

Description: An information disclosure issue was addressed by removing the vulnerable code.

CVE-2023-23502: Pan ZhenPeng (@Peterpan0927) of STAR Labs SG Pte. Ltd. (@starlabs_sg)

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

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

Description: The issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2023-23504: Adam Doupé of ASU SEFCOM

Maps

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An app may be able to bypass Privacy preferences

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

CVE-2023-23503: an anonymous researcher

Safari

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: Visiting a website may lead to an app denial-of-service

Description: The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches.

CVE-2023-23512: Adriatik Raci

Screen Time

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An app may be able to access information about a user’s contacts

Description: A privacy issue was addressed with improved private data redaction for log entries.

CVE-2023-23505: Wojciech Reguła of SecuRing (wojciechregula.blog), and Csaba Fitzl (@theevilbit) of Offensive Security

Weather

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An app may be able to bypass Privacy preferences

Description: The issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2023-23511: Wojciech Regula of SecuRing (wojciechregula.blog), an anonymous researcher

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: Processing web content may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: The issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2023-32393: Francisco Alonso (@revskills)

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

Impact: An HTML document may be able to render iframes with sensitive user information

Description: This issue was addressed with improved iframe sandbox enforcement.

CVE-2022-0108: Luan Herrera (@lbherrera_)

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

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

Description: The issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2023-23496: ChengGang Wu, Yan Kang, YuHao Hu, Yue Sun, Jiming Wang, JiKai Ren and Hang Shu of Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 4 and later

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

Description: The issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2023-23518: YeongHyeon Choi (@hyeon101010), Hyeon Park (@tree_segment), SeOk JEON (@_seokjeon), YoungSung Ahn (@_ZeroSung), JunSeo Bae (@snakebjs0107), Dohyun Lee (@l33d0hyun) of Team ApplePIE

CVE-2023-23517: YeongHyeon Choi (@hyeon101010), Hyeon Park (@tree_segment), SeOk JEON (@_seokjeon), YoungSung Ahn (@_ZeroSung), JunSeo Bae (@snakebjs0107), Dohyun Lee (@l33d0hyun) of Team ApplePIE

Additional recognition

AppleMobileFileIntegrity

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

Core Data

We would like to acknowledge Austin Emmitt (@alkalinesec), Senior Security Researcher at Trellix Advanced Research Center, for their assistance.

Kernel

We would like to acknowledge Nick Stenning of Replicate for their assistance.

WebKit

We would like to acknowledge Eliya Stein of Confiant for their assistance.