Apple patches critical zero-day chain exploited in targeted attacks
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Apple fixes two zero-day vulnerabilities CVE-2025-43529 and CVE-2025-14174 exploited against specific individuals; patching iOS, macOS, Safari and other products required.
CIS-ISAC advisory 2025-116 documents multiple vulnerabilities across Apple's product line, with two zero-days confirmed exploited in sophisticated targeted attacks against specific individuals: CVE-2025-43529 and CVE-2025-14174, both related to processing maliciously crafted web content leading to arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability set spans iOS, iPadOS, macOS (Tahoe, Sequoia, Sonoma), tvOS, watchOS, visionOS and Safari, with affected versions prior to iOS 18.7.3, macOS Sequoia 15.7.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.3, and Safari 26.2. Beyond the zero-days, the patch set includes privilege escalation flaws, sandbox escape, authentication bypass in FaceTime (caller ID spoofing), information disclosure issues (payment tokens, Safari history, installed apps, protected user data), and miscellaneous denial-of-service and memory corruption bugs. Successful exploitation allows arbitrary code execution in the logged-on user context, with impact ranging from data theft to program installation and account creation depending on user privileges.
Mentioned in this report
Detection guidance
macOS Safari or WebKit Process Spawning Shell or Scripting Interpreter
Safari or WebKit content/networking processes spawning a shell, osascript, or a download/scripting utility, consistent with exploitation of crafted web content leading to code execution. Auto-generated starting point — validate and tune in your environment before deploying. IOC matches can false-positive on shared infrastructure and decay as adversary infrastructure rotates.
title: macOS Safari or WebKit Process Spawning Shell or Scripting Interpreter
description: Detects Safari or WebKit helper processes (WebContent, Networking, GPU)
spawning shells, osascript, or download/scripting utilities. Browsers do not normally
launch these, so a hit is consistent with exploitation of crafted web content (for
example WebKit zero-days) leading to code execution in the user context.
tags:
- attack.execution
- attack.t1203
- attack.discovery
- attack.t1033
logsource:
category: process_creation
product: macos
detection:
selection_parent:
ParentImage|endswith:
- /Safari
- /com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
- /com.apple.WebKit.Networking
- /com.apple.WebKit.GPU
selection_child:
Image|endswith:
- /sh
- /bash
- /zsh
- /osascript
- /curl
- /python
- /python3
- /perl
- /ruby
- /dscl
- /whoami
condition: selection_parent and selection_child
falsepositives:
- Developer or web-extension debugging workflows that launch helper scripts from Safari
- Enterprise Safari extensions or managed browser tooling that invoke shell helpers
level: high
id: b8e60325-4546-59e5-939d-ffff53ff32d7
status: experimental
author: Vorant
references:
- https://www.cisecurity.org/advisory/multiple-vulnerabilities-in-apple-products-could-allow-for-arbitrary-code-execution_2025-116
Behavioural rules are generated from public reporting — validate in your environment before deploying.
Source reporting: https://www.cisecurity.org/advisory/multiple-vulnerabilities-in-apple-products-could-allow-for-arbitrary-code-execution_2025-116
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