CVE-2025-46298VulnerabilityPublished 9 Jan 2026Updated 2 Apr 2026

CVE-2025-46298: Apple Safari · Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash

Affects Apple SafariSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium : upgrade to 26.2 when convenient.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

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

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 32% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 26.2

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

Attack Vector: Network
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: 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: 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 9 Jan 2026
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

Upgrade Safari and iOS and iPadOS and macOS and tvOS and visionOS and watchOS to 26.2.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
AppleSafari	Affected <26.2	Fixed in 26.2
AppleiOS and iPadOS	Affected <26.2	Fixed in 26.2
ApplemacOS	Affected <26.2	Fixed in 26.2
AppletvOS	Affected <26.2	Fixed in 26.2
ApplevisionOS	Affected <26.2	Fixed in 26.2
ApplewatchOS	Affected <26.2	Fixed in 26.2

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-46298, organizations should prioritize updating all Apple devices to Safari 26.2 and the corresponding OS versions (iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2, tvOS 26.2, visionOS 26.2, watchOS 26.2) as soon as possible. Beyond patching, organizations should implement network-level protections such as web filtering and URL reputation services to block access to known malicious sites. Employing endpoint security solutions that monitor browser behavior and detect abnormal crashes can help identify exploitation attempts. User education is important to reduce the risk of visiting suspicious or untrusted websites. For high-security environments, consider restricting Safari usage or enforcing alternative browsers with different rendering engines until patches are applied. Monitoring logs for frequent Safari crashes may provide early warning of exploitation attempts. Finally, organizations should maintain an inventory of Apple devices and ensure timely deployment of security updates across all platforms to reduce exposure.

Description

The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in Safari 26.2, iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2, tvOS 26.2, visionOS 26.2, watchOS 26.2. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-46298 is denial of service caused by unexpected crashes of the Safari browser process when processing malicious web content. For organizations, this can lead to reduced productivity, disruption of web-based workflows, and potential loss of access to critical web applications. While the vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity, repeated crashes could be used to degrade user experience or as part of a broader attack strategy to distract or disrupt operations. Enterprises relying heavily on Apple devices and Safari for business-critical applications may face operational challenges if users are exposed to malicious web content. Additionally, in environments where Safari is used for kiosk or embedded systems (e.g., tvOS, visionOS, watchOS), crashes could impact service availability or user interaction. Although no exploits are currently known in the wild, the ease of triggering the crash via crafted web content and the widespread use of Safari across Apple platforms increase the risk of exploitation attempts. Organizations with remote or mobile workforces using Apple devices may be particularly vulnerable to drive-by denial-of-service attacks leveraging this flaw.

CWE-119Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary. This may result in read or write operations on unexpected memory locations that could be linked to other variables, data structures, or internal program data.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Requirements · Language Selection
Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Operation · Build and Compilation · Environment Hardening
Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables (opens in a new tab)
Overflow Buffers (opens in a new tab)
Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow (opens in a new tab)
Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow (opens in a new tab)
MIME Conversion (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 3 Apr 2026, 02:42 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-119

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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