Description

A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in iOS 18.7.10 and iPadOS 18.7.10, iOS 26.6.1 and iPadOS 26.6.1, macOS Tahoe 26.6.2. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "6.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-17T22:17:17.343Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-17T22:17:17.343Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This advisory details a critical use-after-free vulnerability resolved across multiple Apple operating system environments, specifically addressed in iOS 18.7.10, iPadOS 18.7.10, iOS 26.6.1, iPadOS 26.6.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.6.2. The flaw stems from improper memory management within the subsystem responsible for parsing and rendering web content. When a victim processes maliciously crafted web content, the vulnerability can be triggered, leading to an unexpected process crash.\nThe risk implication centers on potential denial of service conditions affecting browser or application processes handling untrusted web streams. Attackers require the capability to deliver or host malicious web content, typically requiring user interaction such as navigating to a compromised website or viewing a specially crafted email or message containing rendered web elements. While the immediate documented impact is limited to an unexpected process crash, memory corruption vulnerabilities of this class can occasionally serve as foundational primitives for more complex exploitation chains if precise heap manipulation is achieved by an adversary.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is classified as a use-after-free (UAF) memory corruption issue rooted in deficient object lifecycle management within the web content processing engine. A use-after-free condition occurs when an application continues to utilize a pointer to a memory location after the dynamic memory buffer has been deallocated or freed. If the memory is subsequently reallocated for another purpose, dereferencing the dangling pointer can lead to erratic program behavior, memory corruption, or application termination.\nThe attack vector requires the processing of maliciously crafted web content. The attack flow initiates when the vulnerable platform component parses structurally manipulated markup, scripts, or associated web resources. During the parsing or rendering lifecycle, an object is prematurely freed while references to it persist within internal data structures or execution contexts. Subsequent execution paths attempt to access the freed object, violating memory safety invariants and triggering an exception that results in an unexpected process crash.\nThe vulnerable component is integral to the web content processing pipeline present in the affected software distributions, which include iOS 18.7.10, iPadOS 18.7.10, iOS 26.6.1, iPadOS 26.6.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.6.2. The exploitation surface is exposed via network exposure through standard web browsing or embedded web views. Authentication and local privilege requirements are negligible from the perspective of the remote attacker, as the vulnerability is triggered externally via untrusted data inputs supplied across the network boundary.\nThe fix implemented by the vendor introduces improved memory management practices, ensuring that object references are properly cleared or validated upon deallocation, thereby neutralizing the dangling pointer condition and preventing unauthorized memory access during web content parsing operations."
}