CVE-2025-30426: Apple iPadOS Information Disclosure Flaw

CVE-2025-30426 Overview

CVE-2025-30426 is an information disclosure vulnerability affecting multiple Apple operating systems that allows a malicious application to enumerate a user's installed applications. The vulnerability stems from insufficient entitlement checks, enabling apps to bypass privacy controls and obtain a list of all installed applications on the target device. This type of information exposure can be leveraged for targeted attacks, fingerprinting users, or profiling devices for subsequent exploitation.

Critical Impact

Malicious applications can enumerate all installed apps on affected Apple devices, enabling user profiling, targeted attacks, and privacy violations across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS platforms.

Affected Products

• Apple iOS 18.4 and earlier
• Apple iPadOS 17.7.6 and iPadOS 18.4 and earlier
• Apple macOS Sequoia 15.4 and earlier
• Apple tvOS 18.4 and earlier
• Apple visionOS 2.4 and earlier

Discovery Timeline

• March 31, 2025 - CVE-2025-30426 published to NVD
• November 3, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-30426

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability (CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor) allows applications to bypass the intended privacy restrictions and enumerate installed applications on Apple devices. The flaw exists in the entitlement validation mechanism that should restrict which apps can query information about other installed applications.

Under normal circumstances, Apple's sandboxing model prevents applications from accessing information about other apps without explicit entitlements. However, this vulnerability allows malicious apps to circumvent these protections, gaining visibility into the complete list of applications installed on the user's device.

The information obtained through this vulnerability can reveal sensitive details about user behavior, including banking apps, health applications, dating apps, security tools, and enterprise software. Attackers can leverage this data for social engineering, targeted phishing campaigns, or identifying potential secondary attack vectors based on known vulnerabilities in the discovered applications.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-30426 is insufficient entitlement checking within the Apple operating system's application query mechanisms. The system failed to properly validate that requesting applications possessed the necessary entitlements before allowing them to enumerate installed applications. This missing authorization check allowed any application, regardless of its privilege level, to access this sensitive system information.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for this vulnerability is network-based, requiring the attacker to first distribute a malicious application to the target device. The attack flow proceeds as follows:

1. Attacker creates a seemingly legitimate application that contains hidden functionality to enumerate installed apps
2. The malicious app is distributed to the target (via sideloading, enterprise distribution, or potentially App Store if review is bypassed)
3. Once installed and executed, the app calls system APIs to enumerate installed applications without proper entitlement validation
4. The collected app inventory is exfiltrated to attacker-controlled infrastructure
5. The attacker uses this intelligence for targeted attacks or user profiling

The vulnerability does not require user interaction beyond installing and running the malicious application. Since the exploitation occurs silently, users would have no indication that their installed applications are being enumerated.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-30426

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected network connections from applications transmitting lists of installed app bundle identifiers
• Applications making unusual system calls to enumerate installed software
• Log entries showing repeated queries for application metadata from untrusted sources
• Outbound data exfiltration containing app inventory information

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for applications attempting to access system APIs related to installed application enumeration
• Implement network traffic analysis to detect exfiltration of app inventory data
• Deploy endpoint detection solutions capable of identifying anomalous application behavior patterns
• Review application entitlements and flag apps requesting unnecessary permissions

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive logging on managed Apple devices to capture application API calls
• Implement Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to monitor application behavior across enterprise fleets
• Establish baseline behavior profiles for critical applications to identify deviations
• Configure alerts for applications attempting to access protected system information

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-30426

Immediate Actions Required

• Update all affected Apple devices to the latest patched versions immediately
• Review installed applications on managed devices for any suspicious or unauthorized software
• Implement application allowlisting through MDM solutions to prevent installation of untrusted apps
• Audit enterprise applications for potential exploitation of this vulnerability

Patch Information

Apple has addressed this vulnerability with additional entitlement checks in the following software versions:

• visionOS 2.4 - Apple Support Document #122378
• tvOS 18.4 - Apple Support Document #122377
• iPadOS 17.7.6 - Apple Support Document #122372
• iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 - Apple Support Document #122371
• macOS Sequoia 15.4 - Apple Support Document #122373

Organizations should prioritize deployment of these patches, particularly for devices containing sensitive corporate data or applications.

Workarounds

• Restrict application installation to only trusted sources and verified applications through MDM policies
• Implement network segmentation to limit the ability of compromised devices to exfiltrate data
• Enable supervised mode on iOS and iPadOS devices to enforce stricter application controls
• Consider using VPN and network monitoring solutions to detect unusual data transmission patterns

# Example MDM configuration to restrict app installation (pseudocode)
# Consult your MDM vendor documentation for specific implementation

# Restrict to App Store only (iOS/iPadOS)
allowAppInstallation: true
allowEnterpriseAppTrust: false
restrictAppDataToManagedApps: true

# Enable app allowlisting
allowedAppBundleIDs:
  - com.company.approvedapp1
  - com.company.approvedapp2