VYPR
← All advisories
Unrated severityNVD Advisory· Published Oct 14, 2011· Updated Apr 29, 2026

CVE-2011-3432

CVE-2011-3432

Description

The UIKit Alerts component in Apple iOS before 5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (device hang) via a long tel: URL that triggers a large size for the acceptance dialog.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

A long `tel:` URL in iOS before 5 causes the UIAlert to allocate an excessively large dialog, leading to a device hang (denial of service).

Vulnerability

In Apple iOS versions prior to 5, the UIKit Alerts component does not properly limit the size of the acceptance dialog generated when processing a tel: URL. A remote attacker can craft a tel: URL with an extremely long parameter, causing the system to attempt to render a dialog proportionally sized to the URL length, which exhausts memory or resources and results in a temporary device hang. The issue affects iOS 3.0 through 4.3.5 on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, iOS 3.1 through 4.3.5 on iPod touch (3rd generation and later), and iOS 3.2 through 4.3.5 on iPad [1].

Exploitation

An attacker can trigger the denial of service by delivering the malicious tel: URL to the victim, for example via a link in a web page, email, or SMS. No authentication or special network position is required; the attacker only needs to convince the user to load the URL. When the system prompts the user with the standard dialog to confirm calling the number, the dialog's size is computed based on the URL length. With a sufficiently long URL, the dialog becomes too large to render, causing the device to freeze or become unresponsive [1].

Impact

Successful exploitation causes a denial of service: the device hangs and becomes temporarily unusable. The user may need to force-reboot the device to recover. The attack does not lead to data disclosure or code execution; the impact is limited to availability [1].

Mitigation

Apple addressed the issue in iOS 5, released on October 12, 2011. Users should update to iOS 5 or later via iTunes [1]. No workaround is available for earlier versions. The vulnerability is not known to be listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

References
  1. About the security content of iOS 5 Software Update - Apple Support

AI Insight generated on May 24, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected products

30
  • Apple Inc./Iphone Os29 versions
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.0:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*+ 28 more
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.0:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.1.2:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.1.3:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.1:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.1:-:ipodtouch:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.2.1:-:ipad:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.2:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:3.2:-:ipodtouch:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.0.1:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.0.1:-:ipodtouch:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.0.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.0:-:iphone:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.0:-:ipodtouch:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.2.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.3.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.3.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.3.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.3.5:-:ipad:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:4.3.5:-:ipodtouch:*:*:*:*:*
  • Apple Inc./iOSllm-fuzzy
    Range: <5

Patches

0

No patches discovered yet.

Vulnerability mechanics

AI mechanics synthesis has not run for this CVE yet.

References

4

News mentions

0

No linked articles in our index yet.