CVE-2015-7109

Vulnerability

A memory corruption vulnerability exists in the IOAcceleratorFamily kernel extension in Apple OS X before version 10.11.2 and tvOS before version 9.1. The bug can be triggered by a crafted application that interacts with the graphics acceleration subsystem, leading to memory corruption in a privileged context [1][2].

Exploitation

An attacker must have the ability to run a malicious application on the target system. No additional user interaction is required beyond launching the app. The crafted app exploits the memory corruption in IOAcceleratorFamily to gain arbitrary code execution within the kernel or a privileged system process.

Impact

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code with system-level privileges, potentially leading to full compromise of the device. Alternatively, the vulnerability can be used to cause a denial of service through memory corruption, crashing the system.

Mitigation

Apple addressed this vulnerability in OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 and tvOS 9.1, released on December 8, 2015 [1][2]. Users should update their devices to these versions or later. No workarounds are documented; the only mitigation is to apply the security updates.