CVE-2024-44185: Apple Safari DOS Vulnerability

CVE-2024-44185 Overview

CVE-2024-44185 is a vulnerability in Apple's WebKit-based Safari browser and multiple Apple operating systems. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash. Apple addressed the issue with improved checks across its product line.

The flaw affects Safari and every major Apple operating system, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS Sonoma, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. Exploitation requires user interaction, typically visiting a crafted web page. The impact is limited to availability, resulting in a browser or process crash rather than code execution or data disclosure.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation causes an unexpected process crash affecting availability of Safari and dependent components on Apple platforms.

Affected Products

Apple Safari (prior to 17.6)
Apple iOS and iPadOS (prior to 17.6)
Apple macOS Sonoma (prior to 14.6), tvOS 17.6, visionOS 1.3, watchOS 10.6

Discovery Timeline

2024-10-24 - CVE-2024-44185 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-44185

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2024-44185 resides in Apple's WebKit web content processing pipeline. When Safari or another WebKit-based component parses specially crafted web content, insufficient validation causes the content process to terminate unexpectedly. Apple classifies the fix as an improved-checks change, indicating a missing or inadequate condition check in the affected code path.

The vulnerability affects a broad range of Apple products because WebKit is the shared rendering engine across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, watchOS, and Safari. A single defect in shared code therefore surfaces across the entire product family.

Impact is limited to availability. The NVD entry lists no confidentiality or integrity effects, and no public exploit or proof of concept is available. The issue is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

Root Cause

Apple's advisory attributes the fix to "improved checks," indicating that the vulnerable code path failed to properly validate a condition or input state while processing web content. The specific CWE is listed as NVD-CWE-noinfo, meaning Apple has not published component-level detail. See the Apple Security Update 120911 for Safari-specific information.

Attack Vector

An attacker hosts a page containing crafted web content and lures a victim to visit it. When WebKit parses the content, the content process crashes. The attack requires user interaction and executes in a local context relative to the browser process. No authentication is required.

Because no proof-of-concept exploit code has been published, this section describes the mechanism in prose only. Refer to the vendor advisories linked below for authoritative technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-44185

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected termination of the Safari com.apple.WebKit.WebContent process or equivalent WebKit content process on affected platforms.
Repeated browser crash reports in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ on macOS referencing WebKit rendering frames.
Access to unfamiliar external domains immediately preceding browser crash events.

Detection Strategies

Monitor endpoint telemetry for WebKit content process crashes correlated with browser navigation events.
Aggregate macOS and iOS crash diagnostic reports and alert on spikes in WebKit-related terminations.
Correlate DNS and web proxy logs with crash timestamps to identify potentially malicious pages triggering the flaw.

Monitoring Recommendations

Track Safari and WebKit build versions across the fleet to identify systems still below the patched releases.
Alert when devices running unpatched Safari, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, or watchOS versions connect to enterprise resources.
Review mobile device management (MDM) compliance dashboards for pending OS updates on Apple endpoints.

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-44185

Immediate Actions Required

Update Safari to version 17.6 or later on macOS systems.
Upgrade to iOS 17.6, iPadOS 17.6, macOS Sonoma 14.6, tvOS 17.6, visionOS 1.3, or watchOS 10.6 as applicable.
Push updates through MDM to enforce compliance across managed Apple devices.

Patch Information

Apple released fixes across its product line. Refer to the vendor advisories for exact build information: Apple Security Update 120909, 120911, 120913, 120914, 120915, and 120916. Downstream Linux distributions using WebKitGTK should apply the corresponding update; see the Debian LTS Announcement.

Workarounds

Restrict Safari usage to trusted sites until patches are deployed on all endpoints.
Enforce web filtering at the network gateway to block newly registered or low-reputation domains.
Educate users to avoid clicking untrusted links, since exploitation requires user interaction.

bash

# Verify Safari version on macOS
defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info.plist CFBundleShortVersionString

# Check macOS build version
sw_vers -productVersion