About the security content of watchOS 7.3

This document describes the security content of watchOS 7.3.

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 7.3

Released 26 January 2021

Analytics

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a remote attacker may be able to cause a denial of service

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2021-1761: Cees Elzinga

Entry added 1 February 2021

APFS

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a local user may be able to read arbitrary files

Description: The issue was addressed with improved permissions logic.

CVE-2021-1797: Thomas Tempelmann

Entry added 1 February 2021

CoreAnimation

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A malicious application could execute arbitrary code leading to compromise of user information

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

CVE-2021-1760: @S0rryMybad of 360 Vulcan Team

Entry added 1 February 2021

CoreAudio

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: an out-of-bounds write was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2021-1747: JunDong Xie of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021

CoreGraphics

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2021-1776: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

Entry added 1 February 2021

CoreText

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: A stack overflow was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2021-1772: Mickey Jin of Trend Micro working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

CoreText

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution

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

CVE-2021-1792: Mickey Jin & Junzhi Lu of Trend Micro working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

Crash Reporter

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to create or modify system files

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

CVE-2021-1786: Csaba Fitzl (@theevilbit) of Offensive Security

Entry added 1 February 2021

Crash Reporter

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a local attacker may be able to elevate their privileges

Description: multiple issues were addressed with improved logic.

CVE-2021-1787: James Hutchins

Entry added 1 February 2021

FairPlay

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a malicious application may be able to disclose kernel memory

Description: An out-of-bounds read issue existed that led to the disclosure of kernel memory. This was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2021-1791: Junzhi Lu(@pwn0rz), Qi Sun and Mickey Jin of Trend Micro working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

FontParser

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution

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

CVE-2021-1758: Peter Nguyen of STAR Labs

Entry added 1 February 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a remote attacker may be able to cause unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

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

CVE-2021-1818: Xingwei Lin of Ant-Financial Light-Year Security Lab

Entry added 16 March 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to a denial of service

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

CVE-2021-1773: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to a denial of service

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2021-1766: Danny Rosseau of Carve Systems

Entry added 1 February 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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-2021-1785: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: an out-of-bounds write was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2021-1744: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a remote attacker may be able to cause unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

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

CVE-2021-1818: Xingwei Lin of Ant-Financial Light-Year Security Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2021-1742: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

CVE-2021-1746: Jeonghoon Shin(@singi21a) of THEORI, Mickey Jin & Qi Sun of Trend Micro working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative, Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

CVE-2021-1754: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

CVE-2021-1774: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

CVE-2021-1777: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

CVE-2021-1793: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2021-1741: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

CVE-2021-1743: Mickey Jin & Junzhi Lu of Trend Micro working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative, Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to a denial of service

Description: An out-of-bounds read issue existed in the curl. This issue was addressed with improved bounds checking.

CVE-2021-1778: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021

ImageIO

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: An access issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2021-1783: Xingwei Lin of Ant Security Light-Year Lab

Entry added 1 February 2021

IOSkywalkFamily

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a local attacker may be able to elevate their privileges

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

CVE-2021-1757: Proteas and Pan ZhenPeng (@Peterpan0927) of Alibaba Security

Entry added 1 February 2021

iTunes Store

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved input sanitisation.

CVE-2021-1748: CodeColorist working with Ant Security Light-Year Labs

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a remote attacker may be able to cause a denial of service

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

CVE-2021-1764: @m00nbsd

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: multiple issues were addressed with improved logic.

CVE-2021-1750: @0xalsr

Entry added 1 February 2021

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: a malicious application may be able to elevate privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.

Description: A race condition was addressed with improved locking.

CVE-2021-1782: an anonymous researcher

Swift

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A malicious attacker with arbitrary read and write capability may be able to bypass Pointer Authentication

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2021-1769: CodeColorist of Ant-Financial Light-Year Labs

Entry added 1 February 2021

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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-2021-1788: Francisco Alonso (@revskills)

Entry added 1 February 2021, updated 16 March 2021

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2021-1789: @S0rryMybad of 360 Vulcan Team

Entry added 1 February 2021

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Maliciously crafted web content may violate iframe sandboxing policy

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

CVE-2021-1801: Eliya Stein of Confiant

Entry added 1 February 2021

WebRTC

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A malicious website may be able to access restricted ports on arbitrary servers

Description: A port redirection issue was addressed with additional port validation.

CVE-2021-1799: Gregory Vishnepolsky & Ben Seri of Armis Security, and Samy Kamkar

Entry added 1 February 2021

Additional recognition

iTunes Store

We would like to acknowledge CodeColorist of Ant-Financial Light-Year Labs for their assistance.

Entry added 1 February 2021

Kernel

We would like to acknowledge Junzhi Lu (@pwn0rz), Mickey Jin & Jesse Change of Trend Micro for their assistance.

Entry added 1 February 2021

libpthread

We would like to acknowledge CodeColorist of Ant-Financial Light-Year Labs for their assistance.

Entry added 1 February 2021

Store Demo

We would like to acknowledge @08Tc3wBB for their assistance.

Entry added 1 February 2021

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