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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 sanitization.
CVE-2021-1748: CodeColorist working with Ant Security Light-Year Labs
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
Additional recognition
iTunes Store
We would like to acknowledge CodeColorist of Ant-Financial Light-Year Labs for their assistance.
Kernel
We would like to acknowledge Junzhi Lu (@pwn0rz), Mickey Jin & Jesse Change of Trend Micro for their assistance.
libpthread
We would like to acknowledge CodeColorist of Ant-Financial Light-Year Labs for their assistance.
Store Demo
We would like to acknowledge @08Tc3wBB for their assistance.
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