Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-20608

Memory Safety in Apple Ipados ≤ 18.7.5

Memory SafetyDoS
Published
11 February 2026
Modified
15 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0023 14th percentile
Risk Priority 42 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-20608 is a medium-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Apple Ipados. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Network Denial of Service (T1498); ranked at the 14th 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-10 (Concurrent Session Control) and SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

This issue was addressed through improved state management. This issue is fixed in Safari 26.3, iOS 18.7.5 and iPadOS 18.7.5, iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, macOS Tahoe 26.3, visionOS 26.3. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected…

more

process crash.

CWE(s)
CWE-770CWE-120

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1498 Network Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Network Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of targeted resources to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.003 Application Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target resource intensive features of applications to cause a denial of service (DoS), denying availability to those applications.
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 →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-20652Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20636Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20664Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-43501Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28857Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20644Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-24237Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-43211Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-24127Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2023-43010Same product: Apple Ipados

Affected Assets

apple
safari
≤ 26.3
apple
ipados
≤ 18.7.5 · 26.0 — 26.3
apple
iphone os
≤ 18.7.5 · 26.0 — 26.3
apple
macos
≤ 26.3
apple
visionos
≤ 26.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.2.1
  • V15.4.4

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-10 Concurrent Session Control good match

Directly enforces a hard limit on concurrent sessions, structurally preventing unbounded resource allocation.

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and analysis can find missing size checks before deployment.

SC-6 Resource Availability good match

Requires explicit allocation of resources by priority or quota, directly stopping unlimited allocation.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Input validation directly enforces size checks before buffer copies.

AC-7 Unsuccessful Logon Attempts partial match

Imposes a limit on consecutive invalid attempts, preventing one specific class of unbounded resource consumption.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Engineering principles require bounds checking and safe buffer handling in design.

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.IR-04 mostly match
degrades

Monitoring capacity and taking action to maintain availability directly reduces unchecked resource allocation.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices directly enforce bounds checking and input validation that prevent classic buffer overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes such as code review or scanning detect classic buffer overflows before exploitation.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing unchecked buffer copies with corrected versions.

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.8.16 Monitoring activities mostly match
finds

Baseline comparison of CPU, memory and bandwidth usage helps surface uncontrolled resource allocations before they cause service degradation.

A.8.28 Secure coding mostly match
prevents

Secure coding directly requires bounds-checked memory operations, addressing the root cause of CWE-120.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development and acceptance can detect buffer overflows through fuzzing and static analysis, though it does not prevent them at the source.

A.8.6 Capacity management mostly match
prevents

Capacity projections and elasticity measures ensure that allocation requests are bounded and can be throttled, reducing the window in which an attacker can force unbounded resource reservations.

A.8.13 Information backup partial match
mitigates

Defining retention periods and deletion schedules for backup copies prevents indefinite accumulation of data on storage media without corresponding resource-management controls.

A.8.14 Redundancy of information processing facilities partial match
mitigates

Architectural redundancy and automatic failover limit the impact of an attacker who forces excessive allocations, because spare capacity can absorb the load until the primary instance recovers.

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 (2 rules)
  • V-248552 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
  • V-248553 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
  • V-271710 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
  • V-271709 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230244 RHEL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770

References