About the security content of watchOS 4
This document describes the security content of watchOS 4.
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.
For more information about security, see the Apple Product Security page. You can encrypt communications with Apple using the Apple Product Security PGP Key.
Apple security documents reference vulnerabilities by CVE-ID when possible.
watchOS 4
802.1X
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: An attacker may be able to exploit weaknesses in TLS 1.0
Description: A protocol security issue was addressed by enabling TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2.
CVE-2017-13832: Doug Wussler of Florida State University
CFNetwork
Available for: All Apple Watch models
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-2017-13829: Niklas Baumstark and Samuel Gro working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative
CVE-2017-13833: Niklas Baumstark and Samuel Gro working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative
CFNetwork Proxies
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: An attacker in a privileged network position may be able to cause a denial of service
Description: Multiple denial of service issues were addressed through improved memory handling.
CVE-2017-7083: Abhinav Bansal of Zscaler Inc.
CFString
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: An application may be able to read restricted memory
Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved input sanitization.
CVE-2017-13821: Australian Cyber Security Centre – Australian Signals Directorate
CoreAudio
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: An application may be able to read restricted memory
Description: An out-of-bounds read was addressed by updating to Opus version 1.1.4.
CVE-2017-0381: V.E.O (@VYSEa) of Mobile Threat Research Team, Trend Micro
CoreText
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted font file may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: A memory consumption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.
CVE-2017-13825: Australian Cyber Security Centre – Australian Signals Directorate
file
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Multiple issues in file
Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 5.31.
CVE-2017-13815: found by OSS-Fuzz
Fonts
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Rendering untrusted text may lead to spoofing
Description: An inconsistent user interface issue was addressed with improved state management.
CVE-2017-13828: Leonard Grey and Robert Sesek of Google Chrome
HFS
Available for: All Apple Watch models
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-2017-13830: Sergej Schumilo of Ruhr-University Bochum
ImageIO
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation.
CVE-2017-13814: Australian Cyber Security Centre – Australian Signals Directorate
ImageIO
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted image may lead to a denial of service
Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation.
CVE-2017-13831: Glen Carmichael
Kernel
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: A local user may be able to read kernel memory
Description: An out-of-bounds read issue existed that led to the disclosure of kernel memory. This was addressed through improved input validation.
CVE-2017-13817: Maxime Villard (m00nbsd)
Kernel
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: An application may be able to read restricted memory
Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved input sanitization.
CVE-2017-13818: The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
CVE-2017-13836: Vlad Tsyrklevich
CVE-2017-13841: Vlad Tsyrklevich
CVE-2017-13840: Vlad Tsyrklevich
CVE-2017-13842: Vlad Tsyrklevich
CVE-2017-13782: an anonymous researcher
Kernel
Available for: All Apple Watch models
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-2017-13843: an anonymous researcher, an anonymous researcher
Kernel
Available for: All Apple Watch models
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-2017-7114: Alex Plaskett of MWR InfoSecurity
Kernel
Available for: All Apple Watch models
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-2017-13854: shrek_wzw of Qihoo 360 Nirvan Team
Kernel
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing a malformed mach binary may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed through improved validation.
CVE-2017-13834: Maxime Villard (m00nbsd)
Kernel
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: A malicious application may be able to learn information about the presence and operation of other applications on the device.
Description: An application was able to access network activity information maintained by the operating system unrestricted. This issue was addressed by reducing the information available to third party applications.
CVE-2017-13873: Xiaokuan Zhang and Yinqian Zhang of The Ohio State University, Xueqiang Wang and XiaoFeng Wang of Indiana University Bloomington, and Xiaolong Bai of Tsinghua University
libarchive
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Unpacking a maliciously crafted archive may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: A buffer overflow issue was addressed through improved memory handling.
CVE-2017-13813: found by OSS-Fuzz
CVE-2017-13816: found by OSS-Fuzz
libarchive
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Unpacking a maliciously crafted archive may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: Multiple memory corruption issues existed in libarchive. These issues were addressed through improved input validation.
CVE-2017-13812: found by OSS-Fuzz
libc
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause a denial-of-service
Description: A resource exhaustion issue in glob() was addressed through an improved algorithm.
CVE-2017-7086: Russ Cox of Google
libc
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: An application may be able to cause a denial of service
Description: A memory consumption issue was addressed through improved memory handling.
CVE-2017-1000373
libexpat
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Multiple issues in expat
Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 2.2.1
CVE-2016-9063
CVE-2017-9233
libxml2
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.
CVE-2017-9049: Wei Lei and Liu Yang - Nanyang Technological University in Singapore
libxml2
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: A buffer overflow issue was addressed with improved memory handling.
CVE-2017-7376: an anonymous researcher
CVE-2017-5130: an anonymous researcher
libxml2
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation.
CVE-2017-9050: Mateusz Jurczyk (j00ru) of Google Project Zero
libxml2
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Processing maliciously crafted XML may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: A null pointer dereference was addressed with improved validation.
CVE-2018-4302: Gustavo Grieco
Security
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: A revoked certificate may be trusted
Description: A certificate validation issue existed in the handling of revocation data. This issue was addressed through improved validation.
CVE-2017-7080: an anonymous researcher, Sven Driemecker of adesso mobile solutions gmbh, an anonymous researcher, Rune Darrud (@theflyingcorpse) of Bærum kommune
SQLite
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Multiple issues in SQLite
Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 3.19.3.
CVE-2017-10989: found by OSS-Fuzz
CVE-2017-7128: found by OSS-Fuzz
CVE-2017-7129: found by OSS-Fuzz
CVE-2017-7130: found by OSS-Fuzz
SQLite
Available for: All Apple Watch models
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-2017-7127: an anonymous researcher
Wi-Fi
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Malicious code executing on the Wi-Fi chip may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges on the application processor
Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.
CVE-2017-7103: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero
CVE-2017-7105: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero
CVE-2017-7108: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero
CVE-2017-7110: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero
CVE-2017-7112: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero
Wi-Fi
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Malicious code executing on the Wi-Fi chip may be able to read restricted kernel memory
Description: A validation issue was addressed with improved input sanitization.
CVE-2017-7116: Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero
zlib
Available for: All Apple Watch models
Impact: Multiple issues in zlib
Description: Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 1.2.11.
CVE-2016-9840
CVE-2016-9841
CVE-2016-9842
CVE-2016-9843
Additional recognition
Security
We would like to acknowledge Abhinav Bansal of Zscaler, Inc. for their assistance.
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