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Mallory
High

Out-of-bounds access in Apple ImageIO media file processing

IdentifiersCVE-2025-43338CWE-125

CVE-2025-43338 is an out-of-bounds access vulnerability in Apple ImageIO. According to the provided advisory content, the flaw is triggered when ImageIO processes a maliciously crafted media file. Apple states the issue was addressed through improved bounds checking. Successful triggering may lead to unexpected application termination or corruption of process memory. The issue is reported as affecting Apple platforms including macOS Sonoma prior to 14.8.2, and later advisory content also lists a fix in macOS Tahoe 26.

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For your environment

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

A successful exploit can cause denial of service via unexpected application termination and may corrupt process memory in the target process handling the crafted media file. Based on the provided information, the documented impact is limited to process crash or memory corruption; no confirmed arbitrary code execution is stated in the supplied content.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Until patches are fully deployed, reduce exposure by avoiding processing untrusted or externally supplied media files with vulnerable ImageIO-dependent applications and services. Limit automatic previewing, thumbnailing, or ingestion of untrusted media where operationally feasible, and prefer opening media only from trusted sources. These are risk-reduction measures only; the definitive mitigation is installation of Apple's security update.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the vendor-provided security updates that fix CVE-2025-43338. The supplied content states the issue is fixed in macOS Sonoma 14.8.2 and also referenced as fixed in macOS Tahoe 26. Organizations should update affected Apple systems to a version containing Apple's improved bounds checking in ImageIO.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
AppleIpadosoperating_system
AppleIphone Osoperating_system
AppleMacosoperating_system

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

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Exposure mapping

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Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

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Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity3

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.