CVE-2023-42919: Apple iPadOS Information Disclosure Flaw

CVE-2023-42919 Overview

CVE-2023-42919 is a privacy vulnerability affecting multiple Apple operating systems including macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. The issue stems from improper private data redaction for log entries, allowing a malicious application to potentially access sensitive user data that should have been protected through log redaction mechanisms.

Critical Impact

A local attacker with user interaction can exploit this vulnerability through a malicious application to access sensitive user data, potentially leading to privacy breaches and unauthorized information disclosure across Apple devices.

Affected Products

• Apple macOS Sonoma (versions prior to 14.2)
• Apple macOS Ventura (versions prior to 13.6.3)
• Apple macOS Monterey (versions prior to 12.7.2)
• Apple iOS (versions prior to 17.2 and 16.7.3)
• Apple iPadOS (versions prior to 17.2 and 16.7.3)
• Apple watchOS (versions prior to 10.2)

Discovery Timeline

• December 12, 2023 - CVE-2023-42919 published to NVD
• November 4, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2023-42919

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability represents an Information Disclosure flaw in Apple's logging subsystem. The core issue lies in the failure to properly redact private data before writing it to system log entries. Apple's operating systems include logging mechanisms that are designed to mask sensitive information such as user credentials, personal identifiable information, and other private data. When this redaction fails, applications with appropriate log access permissions can read sensitive data that was intended to be protected.

The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction, meaning an attacker would need to convince a user to install and run a malicious application. Once executed, the malicious app can leverage standard system APIs to access log entries containing unredacted sensitive user data. This represents a confidentiality breach with high impact to user privacy.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2023-42919 is insufficient implementation of privacy-preserving log redaction across multiple Apple operating system components. Apple's unified logging system (os_log) includes mechanisms for marking data as private or sensitive, which should automatically redact such data in log output. However, a flaw in the redaction logic allowed certain private data categories to pass through unredacted, making them accessible to applications with log reading capabilities.

The vulnerability affects the data flow between application-level logging calls and the system's log aggregation services, where privacy metadata was not being properly honored during log persistence operations.

Attack Vector

The attack requires local access and exploits the privacy logging flaw through the following mechanism:

1. An attacker creates a malicious application that requests or inherits permissions to read system logs
2. The user is socially engineered into installing and running the malicious application
3. Once running, the application accesses system log entries through legitimate logging APIs
4. Due to the redaction failure, the malicious app can read sensitive user data that should have been masked
5. The extracted data can be exfiltrated or used for further attacks

The vulnerability affects system-wide logging, meaning sensitive data from multiple sources could potentially be exposed depending on which applications and services logged private information during the exploitation window.

Detection Methods for CVE-2023-42919

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual log file access patterns from third-party applications
• Applications requesting or accessing unified logging system data without clear business justification
• Presence of unknown or recently installed applications with diagnostic or logging-related permissions
• Anomalous data exfiltration from devices containing log data

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for applications accessing the unified logging system (/var/db/diagnostics/ and related directories) outside of normal system processes
• Implement endpoint detection to identify applications using OSLogStore or similar APIs to bulk-read log entries
• Review installed applications for suspicious log access patterns or permissions
• Deploy behavioral analysis to detect applications collecting and transmitting log data externally

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable enhanced auditing on macOS devices to track access to logging subsystem resources
• Utilize SentinelOne's behavioral AI to detect anomalous application behavior related to log access
• Implement Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to monitor app installations and permissions on iOS/iPadOS devices
• Regularly review system logs for evidence of unauthorized access attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2023-42919

Immediate Actions Required

• Update all Apple devices to the latest patched versions immediately
• Audit installed applications and remove any untrusted or unnecessary apps
• Review app permissions and revoke access to diagnostics or logging capabilities where not required
• Implement application whitelisting to prevent installation of untrusted software

Patch Information

Apple has released security updates addressing this vulnerability across all affected platforms. Users and administrators should update to the following minimum versions:

For additional details, refer to Apple's security advisories published on the Full Disclosure Mailing List.

Workarounds

• Restrict installation of third-party applications to only those from trusted sources (App Store or verified enterprise distributions)
• Limit user accounts to standard privileges where administrative access is not required
• Employ SentinelOne endpoint protection to detect and block malicious applications attempting to exploit this vulnerability
• Consider enabling additional privacy protections available in System Settings to limit app access to sensitive data

# Check current macOS version and update status
softwareupdate --list
# Install all available security updates
softwareupdate --install --all
# Verify system version after update
sw_vers