High

Same Origin Policy Bypass in Apple WebKit/Safari

IdentifiersCVE-2023-38572CWE-346

CVE-2023-38572 is an Apple vulnerability in WebKit/Safari in which a malicious website may be able to bypass the browser's Same Origin Policy. Apple states the issue was addressed with improved checks. The flaw affects Apple platforms including iOS, iPadOS, macOS Ventura, tvOS, watchOS, and Safari prior to the fixed versions listed by Apple. No further technical detail about the specific vulnerable function or code path is provided in the supplied content.

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 could allow a malicious website to violate origin isolation boundaries and access data or perform actions that should be restricted to a different web origin. In practice, a Same Origin Policy bypass can enable unauthorized cross-origin access to sensitive web content, session-associated data, or privileged browser interactions, depending on the reachable context.

Mitigation

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

Until patches are applied, reduce exposure to untrusted web content, especially in Safari/WebKit-based browsing contexts. Enterprise defenders can limit access to untrusted sites, use network-layer web filtering, and prefer prompt OS/browser updates because the issue is triggered by visiting a malicious website. No Apple-provided workaround is included in the supplied content.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply Apple's security updates that fix CVE-2023-38572: iOS 15.7.8 and iPadOS 15.7.8, iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6, tvOS 16.6, macOS Ventura 13.5, Safari 16.6, and watchOS 9.6.

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

AppleWatchosoperating_system

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

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

2 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.

2 SOURCESView more in app

apple supportNews

Jan 25, 2026

About the security content of iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 - Apple Support

A Same Origin Policy bypass in web content handling; addressed with improved checks.

apple supportNews

Jan 19, 2026

Informazioni sui contenuti di sicurezza di iOS 16.6 e iPadOS 16.6 - Supporto Apple (IT)

Vulnerabilità in elaborazione contenuti web che può portare a esecuzione di codice arbitrario; corretta con controlli migliori.

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.

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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