What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2023-38598

• Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 1.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2023-07-28 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-416

Description

A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in watchOS 9.6, macOS Big Sur 11.7.9, iOS 15.7.8 and iPadOS 15.7.8, macOS Monterey 12.6.8, tvOS 16.6, iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6, macOS Ventura 13.5. An app may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.

Affected products

• Apple iPadOS: before 15.7.8; from 16.0 before 16.6 — fixed in 15.7.8, 16.6
• Apple Iphone Os: before 15.7.8; from 16.0 before 16.6 — fixed in 15.7.8, 16.6
• Apple macOS: before 11.7.9; from 12.0 before 12.6.8; from 13.0 before 13.5 — fixed in 11.7.9, 12.6.8, 13.5
• Apple tvOS: before 16.6 — fixed in 16.6
• Apple watchOS: before 9.6 — fixed in 9.6

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apple iPadOS 15.7.8, 16.6; Apple Iphone Os 15.7.8, 16.6; Apple macOS 11.7.9, 12.6.8, 13.5; Apple tvOS 16.6; Apple watchOS 9.6. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213841
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213842
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213843
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213844
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213845
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213846
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213848
• https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213841
• https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213842
• https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213843
• https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213844
• https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213845

Get alerted when CVE-2023-38598 or the next vulnerability affects your stack