VulnerabilityPublished 16 Sep 2024Updated 2 Apr 2026

CVE-2024-44176: Apple iOS and iPadOS · Processing an image may lead to a denial-of-service

Affects Apple iOS and iPadOSSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium · fixed in 17.7 : update Apple iOS and iPadOS when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

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

EPSS: 7.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 94% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 17.7

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

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

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

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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

Organizations should prioritize updating all affected Apple devices to the latest patched versions: iOS 17.7, iPadOS 17.7, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and corresponding updates for macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. Beyond patching, implement strict controls on image file sources by restricting or scanning incoming image files from untrusted sources, especially in email and messaging platforms. Employ endpoint protection solutions capable of detecting anomalous file processing behaviors. Educate users about the risks of opening unsolicited or suspicious image files, emphasizing caution with attachments and links. Where possible, disable automatic image previews in messaging or mail applications to reduce the chance of inadvertent triggering. Monitor device logs for crashes or abnormal behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. For enterprise-managed devices, use Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to enforce update policies and restrict risky file types. Regularly review security advisories from Apple to stay informed about related vulnerabilities and patches.

Description

An out-of-bounds access issue was addressed with improved bounds checking. 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. Processing an image may lead to a denial-of-service.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-44176 is denial-of-service, which can disrupt user productivity and availability of Apple devices. For organizations, this could mean temporary loss of access to critical mobile devices or tablets used in business operations, potentially affecting communication, data access, and operational continuity. While the vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity, repeated or targeted DoS attacks could degrade user trust and increase support costs. In environments where Apple devices are integral to workflows—such as healthcare, finance, or government sectors—service interruptions could have cascading operational effects. The requirement for user interaction limits remote exploitation, but phishing or social engineering attacks could deliver malicious images to trigger the vulnerability. Since no known exploits are currently in the wild, the immediate risk is moderate, but unpatched systems remain vulnerable to future exploitation attempts.

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

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 2 Apr 2026, 23:51 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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