CISA has issued an urgent warning regarding a critical zero-day vulnerability affecting Apple’s iOS, iPadOS, and macOS operating systems that threat actors are actively exploiting.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-43300, has been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, signaling immediate action is required from organizations and individual users to protect their systems from potential compromise.
Key Takeaways
1. CVE-2025-43300 in Apple devices allows code execution through malicious images.
2. Actively exploited by threat actors targeting iOS, iPadOS, and macOS systems.
3. Install Apple security updates immediately; federal deadline September 11, 2025.
- Out-of-Bounds Write Flaw
The newly disclosed vulnerability represents an out-of-bounds write weakness within Apple’s Image I/O framework, classified under CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write).
This type of vulnerability allows attackers to write data beyond the intended boundaries of allocated memory buffers, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution, system crashes, or privilege escalation.
The Image I/O framework is responsible for reading and writing image data across Apple’s ecosystem, making this vulnerability particularly concerning due to its widespread usage in processing various image formats, including JPEG, PNG, and HEIF files.
Security researchers indicate that the flaw could be triggered through maliciously crafted image files, enabling attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected application.
The vulnerability affects multiple Apple operating system versions, creating a broad attack surface that encompasses iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers across enterprise and consumer environments.
CISA’s inclusion of CVE-2025-43300 in the KEV catalog, dated August 21, 2025, establishes a mandatory remediation deadline of September 11, 2025, for all federal civilian executive branch agencies.
Under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01), these organizations must apply vendor-supplied mitigations or discontinue use of affected products if patches remain unavailable.
The agency’s swift response underscores the severity of active exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability.
While CISA has not yet determined whether the flaw is being leveraged in ransomware campaigns, the agency’s guidance emphasizes treating this as a high-priority security issue requiring immediate attention from network defenders and cybersecurity teams.
| Risk Factors | Details |
| Affected Products | Apple iOSApple iPadOSApple macOS |
| Impact | Arbitrary Code ExecutionPotential Privilege Escalation |
| Exploit Prerequisites | Maliciously crafted image fileUser interaction with image processingAccess to Image I/O framework |
| CVSS 3.1 Score | 8.8 (High) |
Apple has released security updates addressing the vulnerability across affected platforms, with detailed mitigation guidance available through multiple support bulletins.
Organizations should prioritize implementing these patches as part of their vulnerability management frameworks, particularly given the zero-day nature of the threat and confirmed exploitation in the wild.
The vulnerability’s presence in the KEV catalog serves as a critical input for cybersecurity professionals developing risk-based remediation strategies.
Network defenders should leverage CISA’s authoritative vulnerability intelligence to enhance their threat detection capabilities and ensure comprehensive coverage of known attack vectors targeting Apple’s widely deployed operating systems.
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