• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Orange reports major cyberattack, warns of service disruptions

 | 

Hackers leak images and comments from women dating safety app Tea

 | 

Pro-Ukraine hacktivists claim cyberattack on Russian Airline Aeroflot that caused the cancellation of +100 flights

 | 

Seychelles Commercial Bank Reported Cybersecurity Incident

 | 

Microsoft uncovers macOS flaw allowing bypass TCC protections and exposing sensitive data

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Cisco ISE and PaperCut NG/MF flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Critical WordPress Post SMTP plugin flaw exposes 200K+ sites to full takeover

 | 

Scattered Spider targets VMware ESXi in using social engineering

 | 

China-linked group Fire Ant exploits VMware and F5 flaws since early 2025

 | 

Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Mobile
  • Apple fixes iPhone and iPad bug exploited in ‘extremely sophisticated attacks’

Apple fixes iPhone and iPad bug exploited in ‘extremely sophisticated attacks’

Pierluigi Paganini February 10, 2025

Apple released iOS and iPadOS updates to address a zero-day likely exploited in extremely sophisticated attacks targeting specific individuals.

Apple released emergency security updates to address a zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24200, that the company believes was exploited in “extremely sophisticated” targeted attacks.

An attacker could have exploited the vulnerability to disable the USB Restricted Mode “on a locked device.”

Apple’s USB Restricted Mode is a security feature introduced in iOS 11.4.1 to protect devices from unauthorized access via the Lightning port.

The USB Restricted Mode disables the data connection of the iPhone’s Lightning port after a specific interval of time, but it doesn’t interrupt the charging process. Any other data transfer would require the user to provide the passcode.

The IT giant fixed the vulnerability with improved state management.

“A physical attack may disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device,” reads the release notes for iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1.

“Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.”

Bill Marczak of The Citizen Lab at The University of Toronto’s Munk School reported the vulnerability to the IT giant.

Update your iPhones.. again! iOS 18.3.1 out today with a fix for an ITW USB restricted mode bypass (via Accessibility) https://t.co/jcrsab7RGu pic.twitter.com/ER42QQcsLj

— Bill Marczak (@billmarczak) February 10, 2025

The zero-day impacts the following devices: iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later.

Apple also released 17.7.5 to address the issues in iPad Pro 12.9-inch 2nd generation, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, and iPad 6th generation.

As usual, Apple did not publicly disclose details about the attacks exploiting the vulnerability or the threat actors responsible.

However, the circumstance that the Citizen Lab researchers discovered the attack suggests that the threat actor may have used a zero-day exploit to deliver commercial spyware in highly targeted attacks. Such kinds of attacks often rely on zero-day exploits to target journalists, dissidents, and opposition politicians with spyware.

Another possibility is that Apple is aware of physical access attacks on some of its devices, likely involving forensic tools like Cellebrite to unlock and extract data.

In September 2023, researchers at Citizen Lab reported that two actively exploited zero-day flaws (CVE-2023-41064 and CVE-2023-41061) fixed by Apple were used to infect devices with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. 

According to the researchers, the two vulnerabilities were chained as part of a zero-click exploit, named BLASTPASS, used in attacks on iPhones running the latest version of iOS (16.6).

Citizen Lab reported that the exploit was used to install the Pegasus Spyware on the device belonging to an individual employed by a Washington DC-based civil society organization with international offices.

The experts reported that the exploit involved PassKit attachments containing malicious images that were sent to the victim from an attacker’s iMessage account.

In January, Apple released security updates to address 2025’s first zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24085, actively exploited in attacks targeting iPhone users.

The vulnerability is a privilege escalation vulnerability that impacts the Core Media framework.

“A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.” reads the advisory ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]) published by the IT giant.

The Apple Core Media framework supports multimedia tasks like playback, recording, and manipulation of audio and video on iOS and macOS devices.

The company addressed the use after free issue with improved memory management.

Threat actors exploited the vulnerability to target devices running iOS before iOS 17.2.

The vulnerability impacts iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later.

Apple addressed the issue with the release of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, macOS Sequoia 15.3, watchOS 11.3, visionOS 2.3, and tvOS 18.3.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, zero-day)


facebook linkedin twitter

Apple CVE-2025-24200 Hacking hacking news information security news iOS iPadOS IT Information Security Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 29, 2025
Orange reports major cyberattack, warns of service disruptions
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 29, 2025
Hackers leak images and comments from women dating safety app Tea
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Orange reports major cyberattack, warns of service disruptions

    Security / July 29, 2025

    Hackers leak images and comments from women dating safety app Tea

    Data Breach / July 29, 2025

    Pro-Ukraine hacktivists claim cyberattack on Russian Airline Aeroflot that caused the cancellation of +100 flights

    Hacktivism / July 29, 2025

    Seychelles Commercial Bank Reported Cybersecurity Incident

    Data Breach / July 29, 2025

    Microsoft uncovers macOS flaw allowing bypass TCC protections and exposing sensitive data

    Hacking / July 29, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT