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Mallory
Medium

Universal XSS in Apple Safari and Apple operating systems WebKit

IdentifiersCVE-2024-40857CWE-79· Improper Neutralization of Input…

CVE-2024-40857 is a web content processing vulnerability in Apple Safari 18, visionOS 2, watchOS 11, macOS Sequoia 15, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and tvOS 18. Apple states that processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to universal cross-site scripting (UXSS). The issue was remediated through improved state management. Based on the advisory language, the flaw affects browser/web content security boundary handling rather than a memory-safety condition, allowing attacker-controlled script execution in an unintended web security context.

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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.

Successful exploitation may allow a malicious website to trigger universal cross-site scripting, enabling script execution across origin boundaries within the browser context. This can undermine the same-origin policy and permit access to sensitive data associated with other web origins, session material, or authenticated web application content available to the affected browsing context.

Mitigation

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

Until patching is completed, reduce exposure by limiting access to untrusted web content, using browser and OS security updates as soon as available, and restricting use of affected Apple web-browsing components on high-risk systems. Standard web hardening measures such as minimizing privileged browsing sessions and isolating sensitive workflows from general web browsing may reduce impact, but no vendor-specific workaround is provided in the supplied content.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade affected systems to versions containing Apple's fix: Safari 18, visionOS 2, watchOS 11, macOS Sequoia 15, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and tvOS 18 or later. Apple indicates the issue was addressed through improved state management.
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
AppleSafariapplication
AppleTvosoperating_system
AppleVisionosoperating_system
AppleWatchosoperating_system

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

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

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

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

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

Social activity

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

Universal XSS in Apple Safari and Apple operating systems WebKit (CVE-2024-40857) | Mallory