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Mallory
Medium

Out-of-bounds write in Apple Kernel

IdentifiersCVE-2026-28972CWE-787· Out-of-bounds Write

CVE-2026-28972 is a kernel vulnerability in Apple operating systems caused by an out-of-bounds write. Apple states the issue was addressed with improved input validation. Successful exploitation by a local app may trigger memory corruption in kernel context, leading to unexpected system termination or the ability to write to kernel memory. The issue affects multiple Apple platforms prior to the fixed releases, including iOS/iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS.

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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.

Exploitation can cause kernel memory corruption with two stated outcomes from Apple: unexpected system termination and kernel memory write. In practice, this represents a high-impact local kernel attack surface because arbitrary or semi-controlled kernel memory writes can undermine kernel integrity, potentially enabling denial of service and, depending on exploitability details not provided by Apple, further privilege escalation or code-execution primitives. However, Apple only explicitly confirms system termination or kernel memory write.

Mitigation

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

No specific workaround is provided in the supplied content. Practical mitigation is to restrict execution of untrusted or unnecessary apps and apply Apple security updates promptly, since exploitation requires an app able to reach the vulnerable kernel path locally.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Update affected devices to a fixed release. Apple states the issue is 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.
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
AppleIosoperating_system
AppleIpadosoperating_system
AppleIphone Osoperating_system
AppleMacosoperating_system
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 activity8

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