About the security content of watchOS 5.2

This document describes the security content of watchOS 5.2.

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 5.2

Accounts

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

Description: A denial of service issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2019-8538: Trevor Spiniolas (@TrevorSpiniolas)

CFString

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved logic.

CVE-2019-8516: SWIPS Team of Frifee Inc.

configd

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges

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

CVE-2019-8552: Mohamed Ghannam (@_simo36)

Contacts

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges

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

CVE-2019-8511: an anonymous researcher

CoreCrypto

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges

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

CVE-2019-8542: an anonymous researcher

file

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted file might disclose user information

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

CVE-2019-8906: Francisco Alonso

Foundation

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

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

CVE-2019-7286: an anonymous researcher, Clement Lecigne of Google Threat Analysis Group, Ian Beer of Google Project Zero, and Samuel Groß of Google Project Zero

GeoServices

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: Clicking a malicious SMS link may lead to arbitrary code execution

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

CVE-2019-8553: an anonymous researcher

iAP

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges

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

CVE-2019-8542: an anonymous researcher

IOHIDFamily

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to cause unexpected system termination or read kernel memory

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

CVE-2019-8545: Adam Donenfeld (@doadam) of the Zimperium zLabs Team

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to alter network traffic data

Description: A memory corruption issue existed in the handling of IPv6 packets. This issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2019-5608: Apple

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to leak 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-2019-8547: derrek (@derrekr6)

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8525: Zhuo Liang and shrek_wzw of Qihoo 360 Nirvan Team

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

Description: A buffer overflow was addressed with improved size validation.

CVE-2019-8527: Ned Williamson of Google and derrek (@derrekr6)

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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-2019-8528: Fabiano Anemone (@anoane), Zhao Qixun (@S0rryMybad) of Qihoo 360 Vulcan Team

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to determine kernel memory layout

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

CVE-2019-8540: Weibo Wang (@ma1fan) of Qihoo 360 Nirvan Team

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

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

CVE-2019-8514: Samuel Groß of Google Project Zero

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to determine kernel memory layout

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

CVE-2019-6207: Weibo Wang of Qihoo 360 Nirvan Team (@ma1fan)

CVE-2019-8510: Stefan Esser of Antid0te UG

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to read kernel memory

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

CVE-2019-7293: Ned Williamson of Google

MediaLibrary

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to access restricted files

Description: A permissions issue was addressed by removing vulnerable code and adding additional checks.

CVE-2019-8532: Angel Ramirez, Min (Spark) Zheng and Xiaolong Bai of Alibaba Inc.

Messages

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to view sensitive user information

Description: An access issue was addressed with additional sandbox restrictions.

CVE-2019-8546: ChiYuan Chang

Passcode

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A partially entered passcode may not clear when the device goes to sleep

Description: An issue existed where partially entered passcodes may not clear when the device went to sleep. This issue was addressed by clearing the passcode when a locked device sleeps.

CVE-2019-8548: Tobias Sachs

Power Management

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

Description: Multiple input validation issues existed in MIG generated code. These issues were addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2019-8549: Mohamed Ghannam (@_simo36) of SSD Secure Disclosure (ssd-disclosure.com)

Privacy

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious app may be able to track users between installs

Description: A privacy issue existed in motion sensor calibration. This issue was addressed with improved motion sensor processing.

CVE-2019-8541: Stan (Jiexin) Zhang and Alastair R. Beresford of the University of Cambridge, Ian Sheret of Polymath Insight Limited

Sandbox

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A sandboxed process may be able to circumvent sandbox restrictions

Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved restrictions.

CVE-2019-8618: Brandon Azad

Security

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: An untrusted radius server certificate may be trusted

Description: A validation issue existed in Trust Anchor Management. This issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2019-8531: an anonymous researcher, QA team of SecureW2

Siri

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: A malicious application may be able to initiate a Dictation request without user authorization

Description: An API issue existed in the handling of dictation requests. This issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2019-8502: Luke Deshotels of North Carolina State University, Jordan Beichler of North Carolina State University, William Enck of North Carolina State University, Costin Carabaș of University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, and Răzvan Deaconescu of University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest

TrueTypeScaler

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted font may result in the disclosure of process memory

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

CVE-2019-8517: riusksk of VulWar Corp working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8536: Apple

CVE-2019-8544: an anonymous researcher

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8506: Samuel Groß of Google Project Zero

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

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

Description: Multiple memory corruption issues were addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2019-8518: Samuel Groß of Google Project Zero

CVE-2019-8558: Samuel Groß of Google Project Zero

CVE-2019-8559: Apple

CVE-2019-8563: Apple

CVE-2019-8638: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2019-8639: found by OSS-Fuzz

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 1 and later

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may result in the disclosure of process memory

Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved logic.

CVE-2019-7292: Zhunki and Zhiyi Zhang of 360 ESG Codesafe Team

Additional recognition

Accounts

We would like to acknowledge Milan Stute of Secure Mobile Networking Lab at Technische Universität Darmstadt for their assistance.

Kernel

We would like to acknowledge Brandon Azad of Google Project Zero, Brandon Azad, Raz Mashat (@RazMashat) of Ilan Ramon High School for their assistance.