CVE-2026-20650
Published: 11 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-20650 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Apple Ipados. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 21.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-20650 is a denial-of-service vulnerability stemming from insufficient validation in Apple's Bluetooth implementation. It affects iOS and iPadOS prior to version 26.3, macOS Tahoe prior to 26.3, tvOS prior to 26.3, visionOS prior to 26.3, and watchOS prior to 26.3. The issue, classified under CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), indicating high severity due to its potential for significant availability disruption without requiring privileges or user interaction.
An attacker in a privileged network position can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted Bluetooth packets to targeted Apple devices. Successful exploitation results in a denial-of-service condition, rendering the affected device unavailable until reboot or other recovery measures are applied. No confidentiality or integrity impacts are possible, but the network accessibility and low complexity make it feasible for remote attackers within Bluetooth range.
Apple's security advisories detail the fix as improved validation of Bluetooth packets, available in the specified 26.3 updates across all affected platforms. Organizations should prioritize patching to iOS 26.3, iPadOS 26.3, macOS Tahoe 26.3, tvOS 26.3, visionOS 26.3, or watchOS 26.3, as outlined in support documents at https://support.apple.com/en-us/126346, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126348, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126351, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126352, and https://support.apple.com/en-us/126353.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-6194
Vulnerability details
A denial-of-service issue was addressed with improved validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, macOS Tahoe 26.3, tvOS 26.3, visionOS 26.3, watchOS 26.3. An attacker in a privileged network position may be able to perform denial-of-service…
more
attack using crafted Bluetooth packets.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE enables direct exploitation of Bluetooth packet validation flaw (CWE-400) to trigger OS resource exhaustion and endpoint DoS without privileges or interaction.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly addresses the root cause of insufficient validation of crafted Bluetooth packets that leads to denial-of-service.
Provides denial-of-service protection mechanisms tailored to mitigate resource exhaustion from malformed Bluetooth packets.
Ensures timely remediation through patching to the fixed versions (e.g., iOS 26.3) that include improved Bluetooth validation.