CVE-2023-40438
Apple Ipados ≤ 16.7
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NSummary
CVE-2023-40438 is a medium-severity Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions (CWE-379) vulnerability in Apple Ipados. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data from Local System (T1005); ranked at the 10th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-6 (Least Privilege) and SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-45009
Vulnerability Data
An issue was addressed with improved handling of temporary files. This issue is fixed in macOS Sonoma 14, iOS 16.7 and iPadOS 16.7. An app may be able to access edited photos saved to a temporary directory.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
V15.4.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
AC-6 reduces the set of actors that can reach an insecurely created temp file by limiting privileges on the containing directory.
SC-4 stops unintended information exposure through shared resources such as world-writable temp directories or files.
AC-3 directly enforces file and directory access authorizations, stopping creation or exposure of temp files under overly permissive ACLs.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly prevent developers from writing code that creates temp files in insecure directories.
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.
Secure system architecture principles include proper file-system permission models that mitigate insecure temp-file creation.
Secure coding standards directly require safe temporary-file creation with restrictive permissions.
Information access restriction policies can limit who may read or list files in shared temporary directories.
Configuration management can enforce secure default permissions on temporary directories.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248577 OL 8 must enable kernel parameters to enforce Discretionary Access Control (DAC) on symlinks. prevents CWE-379