About the security content of watchOS 6

This document describes the security content of watchOS 6.

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 6

Audio

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8706: Yu Zhou of Ant-Financial Light-Year Security Lab

Audio

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted audio file may disclose restricted memory

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

CVE-2019-8850: Anonymous working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative

CFNetwork

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to a cross site scripting attack

Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks.

CVE-2019-8753: Łukasz Pilorz of Standard Chartered GBS Poland

CoreAudio

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8705: riusksk of VulWar Corp working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative

CoreCrypto

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Processing a large input may lead to a denial of service

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

CVE-2019-8741: Nicky Mouha of NIST

Foundation

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

CVE-2019-8746: natashenka and Samuel Groß of Google Project Zero

IOUSBDeviceFamily

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8718: Joshua Hill and Sem Voigtländer

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges

Description: This issue was addressed with improved entitlements.

CVE-2019-8703: an anonymous researcher

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

Description: A memory corruption vulnerability was addressed with improved locking.

CVE-2019-8740: Mohamed Ghannam (@_simo36)

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A local app may be able to read a persistent account identifier

Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved logic.

CVE-2019-8809: Apple

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8712: Mohamed Ghannam (@_simo36)

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8744: Zhuo Liang of Qihoo 360 Vulcan Team

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 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-2019-8709: derrek (@derrekr6) derrek (@derrekr6)

Kernel

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8717: Jann Horn of Google Project Zero

libxml2

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: Multiple issues in libxml2

Description: Multiple memory corruption issues were addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2019-8749: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2019-8756: found by OSS-Fuzz

mDNSResponder

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: An attacker in physical proximity may be able to passively observe device names in AWDL communications

Description: This issue was resolved by replacing device names with a random identifier.

CVE-2019-8799: David Kreitschmann and Milan Stute of Secure Mobile Networking Lab at Technische Universität Darmstadt

UIFoundation

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8745: riusksk of VulWar Corp working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative

UIFoundation

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

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

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

CVE-2019-8831: riusksk of VulWar Corp working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative

WebKit

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 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-2019-8710: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2019-8728: Junho Jang of LINE Security Team and Hanul Choi of ABLY Corporation

CVE-2019-8734: found by OSS-Fuzz

CVE-2019-8751: Dongzhuo Zhao working with ADLab of Venustech

CVE-2019-8752: Dongzhuo Zhao working with ADLab of Venustech

CVE-2019-8773: found by OSS-Fuzz

Wi-Fi

Available for: Apple Watch Series 3 and later

Impact: A device may be passively tracked by its Wi-Fi MAC address

Description: A user privacy issue was addressed by removing the broadcast MAC address.

CVE-2019-8854: Ta-Lun Yen of UCCU Hacker and FuriousMacTeam of the United States Naval Academy and the Mitre Cooperation

Additional recognition

Audio

We would like to acknowledge riusksk of VulWar Corp working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative for their assistance.

boringssl

We would like to acknowledge Thijs Alkemade (@xnyhps) of Computest for their assistance.

HomeKit

We would like to acknowledge Tian Zhang for their assistance.

Kernel

We would like to acknowledge Brandon Azad of Google Project Zero for their assistance.

mDNSResponder

We would like to acknowledge Gregor Lang of e.solutions GmbH for their assistance.

Profiles

We would like to acknowledge Erik Johnson of Vernon Hills High School, James Seeley (@Code4iOS) of Shriver Job Corps for their assistance.

Safari

We would like to acknowledge Yiğit Can YILMAZ (@yilmazcanyigit) for their assistance.

WebKit

We would like to acknowledge MinJeong Kim of Information Security Lab, Chungnam National University, JaeCheol Ryou of the Information Security Lab, Chungnam National University in South Korea, cc working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative for their assistance.