May 18, 2017 By Shane Schick 2 min read

Two months after security researchers uncovered five major vulnerabilities in Apple products at the Pwn2Own contest, the technology giant released patches to address more than 100 bugs across MacOS, Safari and other affected products.

According to SecurityWeek, the Apple patch update released on May 17 addressed 37 vulnerabilities, four of which were uncovered by Pwn2Own contestants. These discoveries included vulnerabilities that could have allowed cybercriminals to break into a computer running Mac OS Sierra 10.12.5. Once inside, attackers could potentially visit websites, execute code, steal credentials and more.

The patches fixed scores of other bugs as well, including some specific to Safari 10.1.1.

Bobbing for Bad Apples

This year’s Pwn2Own, a hacking contest that takes place every year at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, awarded cash prizes for discovering security issues on major platforms. As MacRumors reported at the time, contestants were able to interfere with the touch bar on a Mac and scroll through messages by exploiting a vulnerability Apple’s Safari browser. Apple was notified of the discovery immediately following the contest.

The Pwn2Own contest is run as part of the Zero Day Initiative, which advised Apple users to apply the patches quickly to help avoid security attacks such as the WannaCry outbreak that recently made international headlines. In total, the contest identified 35 percent of the vulnerabilities Apple patched, according to the Zero Day Initiative.

Inside the Apple Patch Update

A more recent bug addressed through Apple’s security update, identified by a researcher at Synack, could have been considered a zero-day issue, Threatpost reported. If a computer had file access auditing turned on, cybercriminals could have used an info kernel leak to read restricted memory.

As extensive as the patches appear, though, Apple actually addressed 233 vulnerabilities across MacOS, Safari and iOS in its previous update.

Of course, Apple is also covering bugs that didn’t come up at Pwn2Own. Infosecurity Magazine noted that patches are available for potential problems with iOS 10.3.2, including sandbox escapes related to the kernel, numerous WebKit vulnerabilities in watchOS and tvOS, and more.

Although Apple hasn’t disclosed whether any of these bugs are being exploited in the wild, it’s probably best to make sure the patches are deployed as quickly as possible.

More from

Hive0137 and AI-supplemented malware distribution

12 min read - IBM X-Force tracks dozens of threat actor groups. One group in particular, tracked by X-Force as Hive0137, has been a highly active malware distributor since at least October 2023. Nominated by X-Force as having the “Most Complex Infection Chain” in a campaign in 2023, Hive0137 campaigns deliver DarkGate, NetSupport, T34-Loader and Pikabot malware payloads, some of which are likely used for initial access in ransomware attacks. The crypters used in the infection chains also suggest a close relationship with former…

Unveiling the latest banking trojan threats in LATAM

9 min read - This post was made possible through the research contributions of Amir Gendler.In our most recent research in the Latin American (LATAM) region, we at IBM Security Lab have observed a surge in campaigns linked with malicious Chrome extensions. These campaigns primarily target Latin America, with a particular emphasis on its financial institutions.In this blog post, we’ll shed light on the group responsible for disseminating this campaign. We’ll delve into the method of web injects and Man in the Browser, and…

Crisis communication: What NOT to do

4 min read - Read the 1st blog in this series, Cybersecurity crisis communication: What to doWhen an organization experiences a cyberattack, tensions are high, customers are concerned and the business is typically not operating at full capacity. Every move you make at this point makes a difference to your company’s future, and even a seemingly small mistake can cause permanent reputational damage.Because of the stress and many moving parts that are involved, businesses often fall short when it comes to communication in a crisis.…

Topic updates

Get email updates and stay ahead of the latest threats to the security landscape, thought leadership and research.
Subscribe today