CVE-2023-40438

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-01-10 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-379

Description

An issue was addressed with improved handling of temporary files. This issue is fixed in macOS Sonoma 14, iOS 16.7 and iPadOS 16.7. An app may be able to access edited photos saved to a temporary directory.

Affected products

Apple iPadOS: before 16.7 — fixed in 16.7
Apple Iphone Os: before 16.7 — fixed in 16.7
Apple macOS: before 14.0 — fixed in 14.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apple iPadOS 16.7; Apple Iphone Os 16.7; Apple macOS 14.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213927
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213940
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213927
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213940
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213927
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213940

Get alerted when CVE-2023-40438 or the next vulnerability affects your stack