The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a critical zero-day vulnerability affecting multiple Apple products to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, signaling active exploitation in the wild.
CVE-2025-43529 represents a severe use-after-free vulnerability in WebKit, Apple’s rendering engine, that poses a significant risk to millions of users across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and other Apple platforms.
Vulnerability Overview and Technical Details
The vulnerability, cataloged as a use-after-free issue (CWE-416), exists in WebKit’s handling of web content. When a user visits a maliciously crafted webpage, an attacker can trigger memory corruption through the vulnerability.
The fundamental issue stems from the improper management of memory references in WebKit’s HTML parsing components, allowing attackers to access freed memory regions and execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected application.
What makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous is its broad scope of impact. While Apple Safari is the most obvious target, the vulnerability extends to any non-Apple applications that integrate WebKit for HTML processing.
This includes numerous third-party browsers and applications that rely on Apple’s rendering engine, potentially exponentially expanding the attack surface.
CISA confirmed that threat actors are actively exploiting this vulnerability in the wild, warranting its immediate addition to the KEV catalog on December 15, 2025.
The vulnerability presents a critical delivery mechanism for various attack types, including remote code execution, arbitrary file access, and potential lateral movement within compromised systems.
Organizations have until January 5, 2026, to address this threat a 21-day remediation window established by CISA’s guidance.
Currently, the vulnerability is not known to be used in ransomware campaigns; however, the confirmed active exploitation means defenders should not underestimate the potential for weaponization by advanced threat actors.
Mitigations
CISA has outlined specific guidance for organizations managing this vulnerability. Following BOD 22-01 compliance requirements, organizations should immediately apply vendor-supplied mitigations and security patches once Apple releases them.
For cloud services, organizations must follow applicable cloud service provider guidance and deployment requirements. In scenarios where mitigations remain unavailable, organizations should evaluate discontinuing use of affected products until patches are deployed.
To support vulnerability management initiatives, CISA provides the KEV catalog in multiple formats accessible through their official resources.
Organizations can access data via CSV, JSON, and JSON Schema formats, enabling integration into automated vulnerability management systems and security orchestration platforms.
The comprehensive catalog serves as an authoritative source for prioritizing vulnerability remediation efforts across enterprise environments.
The cybersecurity community should prioritize this vulnerability within existing vulnerability management frameworks.
Organizations utilizing Apple devices across their infrastructure from employee workstations to enterprise deployments should treat this threat with urgency.
Security teams should inventory affected systems, prepare patching procedures, and establish monitoring for exploitation attempts until patches are deployed.
This vulnerability reinforces the importance of maintaining current patch management protocols and proactive threat monitoring capabilities.
As active exploitation continues, organizations that delay remediation efforts significantly increase their exposure to compromise and potential data breaches.
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