CVE-2015-5819

Vulnerability

CVE-2015-5819 is a memory corruption vulnerability in WebKit, the rendering engine used by Apple iOS before version 9 and iTunes before version 12.3 [1][3]. The flaw exists in the processing of crafted web content and can be triggered when a user visits a malicious website. No special configuration is required beyond using a vulnerable version of the software.

Exploitation

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by hosting a malicious website and enticing a victim to visit it using a vulnerable version of iOS or iTunes. No authentication or user interaction beyond browsing is required; the attacker does not need any special network position other than being able to serve the malicious content.

Impact

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected device or cause a denial of service via application crash. The code execution occurs in the context of the application using WebKit, potentially leading to full system compromise on iOS or code execution as the current user on iTunes for Windows.

Mitigation

Apple addressed this vulnerability in iOS 9 (released September 16, 2015) and iTunes 12.3 (released September 16, 2015) [1][3]. Users should update to these versions or later. No workarounds are documented. The vulnerability is not listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.