CVE-2024-44169VulnerabilityPublished 16 Sep 2024Updated 2 Apr 2026

CVE-2024-44169: Apple iOS and iPadOS · An app may be able to cause unexpected system termination

Affects Apple iOS and iPadOSSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.1 High · fixed in 17.7 : patch Apple iOS and iPadOS soon.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

8.1High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 46% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 17.7

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 16 Sep 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Apple iOS and iPadOS	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-44169, organizations and users should immediately apply the security updates released by Apple, including iOS 17.7, iPadOS 17.7, macOS Sequoia 15, macOS Sonoma 14.7, macOS Ventura 13.7, tvOS 18, visionOS 2, and watchOS 11. Beyond patching, organizations should enforce strict app installation policies, limiting installations to trusted sources such as the official Apple App Store and employing Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to control app permissions and monitor device behavior. User education is critical to reduce the risk of social engineering attacks that could lead to malicious app installation. Implementing runtime protection and anomaly detection on endpoints can help identify suspicious app behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. Regularly auditing device configurations and restricting unnecessary app permissions can further reduce attack surface. For high-security environments, consider network segmentation and limiting device access to sensitive systems until patches are applied. Maintaining up-to-date backups ensures recovery capability in case of disruption. Finally, monitoring threat intelligence feeds for emerging exploit reports related to this CVE will help organizations respond promptly to evolving threats.

Description

The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in iOS 17.7 and iPadOS 17.7, iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia 15, macOS Sonoma 14.7, macOS Ventura 13.7, tvOS 18, visionOS 2, watchOS 11. An app may be able to cause unexpected system termination.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-44169 is the potential for a malicious app to cause unexpected system termination, resulting in denial-of-service conditions on affected Apple devices. This can disrupt user productivity, cause loss of unsaved data, and potentially interrupt critical business operations relying on iOS, iPadOS, or other Apple platforms. The high confidentiality and integrity impact ratings suggest that exploitation could also lead to unauthorized access or modification of sensitive information, although the exact mechanisms are not detailed. Organizations with large deployments of Apple devices, especially in sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure, face increased risk due to the widespread use of these platforms. The requirement for user interaction means social engineering or tricking users into installing or running malicious apps is a likely attack vector. The vulnerability’s ease of exploitation (low complexity, no privileges required) increases the threat level. While no active exploits are known, the potential for rapid weaponization exists, making timely mitigation essential to avoid operational disruption and data breaches.

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place.
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or; uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Sustained Client Engagement (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 2 Apr 2026, 23:50 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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