Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-23520

Race Condition in Apple Ipados ≤ 16.3

Race Condition
Published
27 February 2023
Modified
11 March 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0081 54th percentile
Risk Priority 47 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-23520 is a medium-severity Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition (CWE-367) vulnerability in Apple Ipados. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked in the top 46% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A race condition was addressed with additional validation. This issue is fixed in watchOS 9.3, tvOS 16.3, macOS Ventura 13.2, iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3. A user may be able to read arbitrary files as root.

CWE(s)
CWE-367

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2022-48618Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-27847Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20677Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-43276Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-27848Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28866Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20694Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-44131Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2023-38410Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2023-42896Same product: Apple Ipados

Affected Assets

apple
ipados
≤ 16.3
apple
iphone os
≤ 16.3
apple
macos
≤ 13.2

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2
  • V17.2.6

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

AU-8 Time Stamps
addresses: CWE-367

Timestamps meeting UTC or offset standards help identify TOCTOU issues through precise chronological reconstruction of check/use operations.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly include coding standards and reviews that prevent TOCTOU race conditions.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.17 Clock synchronization none match
none

Reliable, synchronized time across systems narrows the exploitable window in which a resource state can change between a security check and its use.

References