CVE-2025-31238
Published: 12 May 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-31238 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Apple Safari. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 20.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-31238 is a memory corruption issue, tracked under CWE-119, that affects web content processing in Safari and multiple Apple operating systems. The flaw arises from insufficient validation when handling crafted input and is present in versions prior to Safari 18.5, iOS 18.5, iPadOS 18.5, macOS Sequoia 15.5, tvOS 18.5, visionOS 2.5, and watchOS 11.5. It carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.3 reflecting network attack vector, low complexity, and partial impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can trigger the vulnerability by causing a victim device to process malicious web content, such as through a crafted website, resulting in memory corruption that may be leveraged for limited unauthorized access or disruption without requiring user interaction.
Apple security advisories state that the issue was resolved by adding improved checks and list the exact updated releases for each affected platform, directing administrators and users to apply those patches. The associated EPSS score has remained flat at a low value of 0.0126 with no observed increase after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-14641
Vulnerability details
The issue was addressed with improved checks. This issue is fixed in Safari 18.5, iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5, macOS Sequoia 15.5, tvOS 18.5, visionOS 2.5, watchOS 11.5. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to memory corruption.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
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.
Ongoing control assessments and code testing (static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing) surface memory buffer restriction failures, which are then remediated before release.
Managed runtimes used by platform-independent applications (e.g., JVM, CLR) enforce memory safety, preventing most buffer overflows that require direct memory manipulation.
Memory protections (e.g., W^X, ASLR) make exploitation of buffer-boundary violations far harder to turn into code execution.
Detects exploitation attempts that produce memory corruption, crashes, or anomalous behavior.