Description

A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in 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 termination.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "6.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-17T22:17:23.377Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-17T22:17:23.377Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A critical use-after-free vulnerability exists in the memory management mechanisms responsible for handling web content across multiple Apple operating systems, specifically affecting iOS, iPadOS, and macOS Tahoe.\nThe vulnerability class is identified as a use-after-free condition, which arises from improper handling of dynamically allocated memory during the parsing and rendering of maliciously crafted web content.\nSuccessful exploitation of this flaw leads directly to an unexpected process termination, signifying an application crash or denial of service condition within the affected web processing context.\nThe affected products include iOS 26.6.1, iPadOS 26.6.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.6.2, all of which contain the addressed memory management improvements.\nAttacker capabilities involve the delivery of a specially crafted web page or malicious web content to a targeted user, requiring the victim to process the malicious input through vulnerable components.\nWhile the primary documented impact is process termination, memory corruption vulnerabilities of this nature frequently carry latent risks of arbitrary code execution under specific heap layout conditions.\nThe risk implication is significant for users browsing untrusted websites, as successful triggers disrupt standard application operations and potentially compromise the stability of the host environment.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability stems from inadequate lifetime management of heap-allocated objects within the web content processing engine.\nSpecifically, a use-after-free condition occurs when a pointer referencing a memory location is accessed after the underlying memory has been deallocated or freed, typically due to a race condition, dangling pointer assignment, or flawed reference counting logic.\nThe vulnerable component is invoked when the application parses maliciously crafted web content, such as specialized HTML, CSS, or JavaScript constructs designed to manipulate heap allocations.\nAttack flow begins when an attacker lures a user to a compromised or maliciously constructed web resource containing the exploit payload.\nAs the browser engine processes the malicious web content, it triggers a sequence of operations that prematurely frees a specific memory object while retaining active references to it elsewhere in the execution context.\nSubsequent access to this dangling pointer leads to memory corruption, violating memory safety guarantees.\nIn the context of this vulnerability, the immediate observable payload behavior and post-exploitation impact manifest as an unexpected process termination, effectively crashing the rendering engine or application handler.\nNetwork exposure is inherent to web-based attack vectors, requiring the victim to access remote network resources or malicious web pages.\nAuthentication and local privilege requirements are minimal or non-existent for the initial trigger, as standard unauthenticated web browsing vectors are sufficient to deliver the crafted web content.\nAffected versions include any iterations preceding iOS 26.6.1, iPadOS 26.6.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.6.2, which remediate the issue through improved memory management practices."
}