Researchers have recently caught multiple security bugs in Apple iOS Mail that risk iPhones and iPads. While the researchers believe that the cybercriminals are actively exploiting the bugs, Apple denies any such exploitation. Patch to arrive soon.
Apple iOS Mail Bugs Possibly Under Attack
Reportedly, researchers from ZecOps have found numerous Apple iOS Mail bugs that threaten Apple devices. Stating the details of the vulnerabilities in a post, the researchers hinted towards the exploitation of the bugs in the wild.
For a successful attack, an adversary merely had to send a maliciously crafted email to the target Apple user. The email in the victim’s mailbox would then trigger the bugs in the context of the relevant mail application in the iOS: Mail App on iOS 12 or Maild on iOS 13.
Regarding the vulnerability, the researchers stated,
ZecOps found that the implementation of MFMutableData in the MIME library lacks error checking for system call ftruncate() which leads to the Out-Of-Bounds write. We also found a way to trigger the OOB-Write without waiting for the failure of the system call ftruncate. In addition, we found a heap-overflow that can be triggered remotely.
Both the OOB Write bug, and the Heap-Overflow bug, occurred due to the same problem: not handling the return value of the system calls correctly.
Apple Denies Any Active Exploitation
ZecOps believes that the bugs affecting Apple Mail app date back to 2018. After discovery, they collaborated with Apple to inform them of the bugs for patches. They have confirmed that Apple patched both the vulnerabilities in the iOS 13.4.5 beta, that will shortly roll out for the public.
While Apple fixed the bugs, they have not observed any active exploitation of the bugs. Nor did they consider the bugs an immediate threat to the users, according to their statement below.
Apple responds to ZecOps report on Mail app vulnerabilities, says it doesn’t pose immediate risk and software update coming. pic.twitter.com/z4ExrmVfK8
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 24, 2020
ZecOps have also expressed their plans to reveal more details about the bugs after Apple patches them.
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