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High

Privilege Elevation in Apple iOS/iPadOS/macOS

IdentifiersCVE-2023-38410CWE-269

CVE-2023-38410 is an Apple vulnerability affecting iPhone 8 and later, supported iPad models, and macOS Ventura. Apple states that a user may be able to elevate privileges. The issue was fixed in iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, and macOS Ventura 13.5, and Apple describes the remediation only as 'improved checks.' No further public technical detail about the vulnerable component or function is provided in the supplied content.

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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 local user to gain privileges beyond those originally granted, potentially enabling actions that require elevated permissions. The supplied content does not provide more specific post-exploitation detail than privilege elevation.

Mitigation

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

If immediate patching is not possible, reduce exposure by limiting local user access to affected devices and restricting use to trusted users and applications until updates can be applied. No vendor-specific workaround or mitigation beyond installing the fixed releases is provided in the supplied content.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the vendor fixes released by Apple: upgrade affected devices to iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, and macOS Ventura 13.5 or later, as applicable. Apple indicates the issue was addressed through improved checks.
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.

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
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

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

EXTERNAL REFERENCES
MITRE CVE
cve.org · CVE-2023-38410
NVD
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-38410
MITRE CWE · CWE-269
cwe.mitre.org
Vendor Advisory
support.apple.com/en-us/HT213841
Vendor Advisory
support.apple.com/en-us/HT213843