Use-after-free in Apple IOKit
CVE-2026-28969 is a use-after-free vulnerability in Apple IOKit. Apple states that the issue was addressed with improved memory management. The available advisory text indicates that a local app can trigger the flaw, leading to unexpected system termination. The issue affects multiple Apple operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS, and was fixed in iOS 18.7.9 and iPadOS 18.7.9, iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5, macOS Sequoia 15.7.7, macOS Sonoma 14.8.7, macOS Tahoe 26.5, tvOS 26.5, visionOS 26.5, and watchOS 26.5.
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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.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
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.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
21 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A denial-of-service vulnerability in IOKit that may allow an app to cause unexpected system termination.
A use-after-free vulnerability in macOS Tahoe that may allow an app to cause unexpected system termination.
A use-after-free vulnerability in Apple TV software that could allow an app to cause unexpected system termination.
A use-after-free vulnerability in macOS Sonoma that may allow an app to cause unexpected system termination.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.