CriticalCVE-2023-41061

    Apple iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS Wallet Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2023-41061)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: SingCERT, pwn.watch, CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    A validation issue was addressed with improved logic. This issue is fixed in watchOS 9.6.2, iOS 16.6.1 and iPadOS 16.6.1.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update Apple iOS and iPadOS to version 16.6, Apple watchOS to version 9.6. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Apple iOS and iPadOS lt *..16.6
    • Apple watchOS lt *..9.6
    Fixed in
    • Apple iOS and iPadOS 16.6
    • Apple watchOS 9.6

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    7.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: SingCERT, pwn.watch, CVE.org

    4.4 %

    EPSS score

    Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 91.4

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    209.12 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploitedSource: Apple (CVE.org), CSA/SingCERT How we classify
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

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    7.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

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    4.4 %
    Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    91.4
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 15 November 2023
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-20

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    The flaw is formally scored as local with user interaction. In practice, it was chained with CVE-2023-41064 into a zero-click exploit delivered through crafted attachments in messaging, compromising the device without the recipient tapping anything and with full impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability. Targets are typically individuals of high intelligence value: executives, negotiators, journalists, government officials and key staff in critical-infrastructure roles. CISA does not flag ransomware use, but exploitation likelihood is well above average. Treat it as high priority in the normal mobile patch cycle for the fleet as a whole. For exposed individuals, treat it as critical and immediate, with Lockdown Mode and a forensic check on top of the update.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Force the update: Move iOS and iPadOS to 16.6.1 and watchOS to 9.6.2 or later. In your MDM (Intune, Jamf, Workspace ONE), set a minimum-OS compliance rule and push the update via Managed Software Update or DDM enforcement with a short deadline. For older device generations that cannot run 16.x, check the Apple security advisory for the applicable release. The same releases fix CVE-2023-41064 (ImageIO). The chain is only closed once both flaws are patched.
      • High-risk users first: Prioritise devices belonging to executives, board members, legal, M&A, communications staff and travellers to high-risk regions. Verify patch state hands-on, not just via the MDM report.
      • Tighten conditional access: Block non-compliant iOS, iPadOS and watchOS devices from Exchange/M365, VPN and internal apps until they report a compliant OS version.
      • Inventory BYOD: Identify unmanaged personal devices that access corporate data. Notify their owners directly and use app-protection policies to cut off data access until they update.
      • Suspected compromise of targeted users: For exposed individuals whose devices stayed unpatched for a long time, take a forensic capture (sysdiagnose, encrypted iTunes/Finder backup). Check it against published IOCs before wiping or re-provisioning the device.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Device hardening – Lockdown Mode: Enable Lockdown Mode for high-risk users. It blocks most message attachment types and preview processing, which substantially reduces the attack surface this attachment-based chain relies on.
      • Configuration change: On supervised high-risk devices, disable iMessage and FaceTime via MDM restriction where the business can tolerate it. Otherwise, enable "Filter Unknown Senders" to limit attachment exposure.
      • Wallet/PassKit: On corporate devices with no business need, discourage importing Wallet passes from messages. Tell users not to open unexpected .pkpass attachments. Expect limited benefit, since part of the processing happens without user interaction.
      • IAM/least privilege: Use short token and session lifetimes for high-risk users on mobile. Back them with phishing-resistant MFA (FIDO2) on separate hardware, so a compromised phone does not automatically hand over crown-jewel access.
      • Network/MTD: Deploy Mobile Threat Defense with network protection (e.g. Defender for Endpoint iOS, Lookout, Zimperium) to block connections to known spyware C2 infrastructure. Enforce DNS filtering through per-app or always-on VPN for managed devices.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • MDM compliance query (Intune/KQL): IntuneDevices | where OS in ("iOS","iPadOS") and parse_version(OSVersion) < parse_version("16.6.1") | summarize by DeviceName, UPN, OSVersion. Run it daily and raise tickets on hits. Do the same check against 9.6.2 for watchOS inventories.
      • Mobile forensics: Run the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) over sysdiagnose and backups from suspect devices, using public IOC sets (STIX2). Look for anomalous process names in DataUsage.sqlite and netusage.sqlite, and for unexplained crash reports from Wallet, PassKit or Messages-related processes around the time attachments arrived.
      • MTD alerts: Correlate jailbreak or integrity-violation alerts, unknown profiles and connections to threat-intel-listed domains from iOS devices in the SIEM. Example (Sentinel): SecurityAlert | where ProductName has "Mobile" and Entities has_any (HighRiskUserList).
      • Network telemetry: In Zeek or proxy logs covering managed-mobile VPN traffic, hunt for newly registered domains and rare destinations contacted shortly after iMessage activity. A Sigma-style shape: dns.query from mobile IP pools where first_seen < 24h and global prevalence is low.
      • User-reported signals: Treat reports of unexpected Wallet passes, blank messages from unknown senders, sudden reboots or unusual battery drain as security events for triage, not helpdesk tickets.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    A validation issue was addressed with improved logic. This issue is fixed in watchOS 9.6.2, iOS 16.6.1 and iPadOS 16.6.1. A maliciously crafted attachment may result in arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.

    Source: CSA/SingCERT, pwn.watch, NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    AppleiOS and iPadOS
    • < 16.6
    • 16.6
    ApplewatchOS
    • < 9.6
    • 9.6

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Mobileappleiphone_os—
    Otherappleipados—
    Otherapplewatchos—

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-20Improper Input Validation

      Class

      The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-20

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    Apple (CVE.org)CVE.org (MITRE) (opens in a new tab)actively exploited
    CSA/SingCERTActive Exploitation of Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in Apple Products (opens in a new tab)CSA/SingCERTactively exploited

    References & sources

    • support.apple.comen-us/HT213905Vendor advisory
    • support.apple.comen-us/HT213907Vendor advisory
    • support.apple.comkb/HT213907Vendor advisory
    • support.apple.comkb/HT213905Vendor advisory
    • seclists.orgfulldisclosure/2023/Sep/5Mailing list, Third-party advisory
    • seclists.orgfulldisclosure/2023/Sep/4Mailing list, Third-party advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-41061government-resource, US government resource
    • pwn.watchpwn.watch: BLASTPASS: NSO zero-click iPhone exploit chain (CVE-2023-41064, CVE-2023-41061)pwn-watch
    • citizenlab.caBLASTPASS: NSO Group iPhone Zero-Click, Zero-Day Exploit Captured in the Wildpwn-watch
    • NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2023-41064pwn-watch
    • NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2023-41061pwn-watch
    • cisa.govCISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogpwn-watch
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