Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-24085

Memory Safety in Apple Macos 13.0 – 13.7.5

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedMemory Safety
Published
27 January 2025
Modified
03 April 2026
KEV Added
29 January 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 10.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.17 97th percentile
Risk Priority 100 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-24085 is a critical-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 10.0 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked in the top 3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

A use-after-free vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24085 and assigned CWE-416, was present in multiple Apple operating systems. It has been resolved through improved memory management in the releases iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3, iPadOS 17.7.6, macOS Sequoia 15.3, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, macOS Ventura 13.7.5, tvOS 18.3, visionOS 2.3, and watchOS 11.3. The flaw carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 10.0.

A malicious application can exploit the issue over a network with no authentication or user interaction required, achieving privilege escalation that affects confidentiality, integrity, and availability across affected devices. Apple has stated it is aware of reports indicating the vulnerability was actively exploited against iOS versions prior to iOS 17.2.

The vendor advisories published at support.apple.com URLs 122066, 122068, 122071, 122072, and 122073 direct administrators and users to install the listed updates as the primary mitigation.

The associated EPSS score rose from lower values after disclosure to a peak of 0.2843 on 2026-02-09 before receding to the current 0.1307, indicating post-publication exploitation interest that warrants renewed attention for unpatched systems.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3, iPadOS 17.7.6, macOS Sequoia 15.3, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, macOS Ventura 13.7.5, tvOS 18.3, visionOS 2.3, watchOS 11.3. A malicious…

more

application may be able to elevate privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.

CWE(s)
CWE-416
KEV Date Added
29 January 2025

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-43529Same product: Apple Ipadosboth on KEV
CVE-2021-30661Same product: Apple Ipadosboth on KEV
CVE-2026-28942Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20637Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-31239Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28883Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28879Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28947Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-43668Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-54499Same product: Apple Ipados

Affected Assets

apple
ipados
≤ 17.7.6 · 18.0 — 18.3
apple
iphone os
≤ 18.3
apple
macos
13.0 — 13.7.5 · 14.0 — 14.7.5 · 15.0 — 15.3
apple
tvos
≤ 18.3
apple
visionos
≤ 2.3
apple
watchos
≤ 11.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation can discover use-after-free bugs through dynamic analysis or fuzzing.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Engineering principles can require memory-safe constructs or languages that structurally avoid introducing use-after-free.

SC-39 Process Isolation partial match

Process isolation confines the blast radius of use-after-free memory corruption to a single execution domain.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory protection controls limit exploitation impact by blocking unauthorized code execution from dangling pointers.

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 incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development can detect use-after-free bugs before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates memory-safety practices that reduce use-after-free defects.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-management rules that mitigate use-after-free.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety design choices that limit use-after-free exposure.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly prescribe avoidance of use-after-free patterns.

A.8.32 Change management partial match
prevents

Change-management processes help ensure memory-safety fixes are deployed consistently.

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-248592 OL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230279 RHEL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
  • V-257794 RHEL 9 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416

References