CVE-2025-31192: Apple Safari Information Disclosure Flaw

CVE-2025-31192 Overview

CVE-2025-31192 is an information disclosure vulnerability affecting Apple Safari, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS Sequoia. A malicious website can access sensor information without obtaining user consent, bypassing the browser's permission model that normally governs sensor API access. Apple addressed the issue with improved checks in Safari 18.4, iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4. The weakness is categorized under CWE-305: Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness, reflecting a failure in the consent-enforcement path for sensor APIs exposed through WebKit.

Critical Impact
A website can silently query device sensor data — a channel that can be abused for fingerprinting, side-channel inference, or passive user tracking.

Affected Products

Apple Safari prior to 18.4
Apple iOS and iPadOS prior to 18.4
Apple macOS Sequoia prior to 15.4

Discovery Timeline

2025-03-31 - CVE-2025-31192 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-31192

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in Safari's WebKit sensor access enforcement. Web platform APIs for sensors — including device motion, orientation, and other environmental readings — require explicit user consent before delivering data to a page. Apple's advisory describes the root problem as insufficient checks in this consent pathway. As a result, a crafted website can invoke the sensor interface and receive readings without a permission prompt.

Sensor telemetry appears benign but carries significant privacy weight. Motion and orientation data enable high-entropy device fingerprinting, keystroke inference through accelerometer patterns, and passive tracking of user activity across sessions. Exploitation requires the victim to load an attacker-controlled page, which is trivial through phishing, malvertising, or compromised sites. Apple resolved the flaw by tightening the consent verification logic before returning sensor values to JavaScript contexts.

Root Cause

The root cause is a missing or incomplete authorization check on the sensor access code path in WebKit ([CWE-305]). The consent gate that should mediate calls to sensor APIs failed to enforce the expected user-approval state, allowing sensor readings to reach the calling script without the required permission grant.

Attack Vector

Exploitation is network-based and requires user interaction — the target must visit a malicious or compromised page in Safari or another WebKit-based browser on an affected Apple platform. No credentials or elevated privileges are required on the client side. Once the page loads, JavaScript running in the page context can subscribe to sensor events and collect readings without a visible consent dialog.

No public proof-of-concept exploit code is available for this issue. See the Apple Support Document #122371, #122373, and #122379 for vendor technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-31192

Indicators of Compromise

Safari, iOS, iPadOS, or macOS Sequoia builds below 18.4 / 15.4 present in the environment inventory.
Web traffic to pages invoking DeviceMotionEvent, DeviceOrientationEvent, or the Generic Sensor API from untrusted origins.
Repeated visits from managed devices to low-reputation domains hosting sensor-collection scripts.

Detection Strategies

Inventory Apple endpoints and compare installed OS and Safari versions against the fixed builds (Safari 18.4, iOS/iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4).
Inspect proxy or DNS telemetry for outbound connections to domains associated with browser fingerprinting or sensor-harvesting frameworks.
Correlate browser process activity with unusual JavaScript sensor API usage in Mobile Device Management (MDM) or browser telemetry feeds.

Monitoring Recommendations

Track Safari and Apple OS version drift through MDM compliance reporting and flag devices below the patched baseline.
Monitor web gateway logs for scripts referencing sensor APIs served from newly registered or uncategorized domains.
Alert on user-agent strings indicating vulnerable Safari builds continuing to access the internet after the patch window.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-31192

Immediate Actions Required

Update Safari to version 18.4 on macOS systems that predate Sequoia 15.4.
Upgrade iOS and iPadOS devices to version 18.4 through MDM-enforced update policies.
Upgrade macOS Sequoia endpoints to version 15.4 to receive the WebKit fix system-wide.
Restrict access to untrusted websites from managed Apple devices until patches are confirmed deployed.

Patch Information

Apple published fixes in the following updates: Safari 18.4, iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4. Refer to Apple Support Document #122371, Apple Support Document #122373, and Apple Support Document #122379 for the full advisories and applicable builds. Additional community discussion is available in the Full Disclosure archive from April 2025.

Workarounds

Enforce update compliance through MDM and block non-compliant devices from sensitive network segments.
Use content filtering to block known fingerprinting and sensor-collection domains at the web gateway.
Limit third-party browser extensions and configurations that could amplify sensor data leakage until patches are applied.

bash

# Configuration example
# Verify installed Safari version on macOS
mdls -name kMDItemVersion /Applications/Safari.app

# Query installed macOS build
sw_vers -productVersion

# Trigger managed software update on macOS
sudo softwareupdate -i -a -R