CVE-2021-1860

A memory initialization issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in Security Update 2021-002 Catalina, Security Update 2021-003 Mojave, iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, watchOS 7.4, tvOS 14.5, macOS Big Sur 11.3. A malicious application may be able to disclose kernel memory.

Weakness

The product does not initialize or incorrectly initializes a resource, which might leave the resource in an unexpected state when it is accessed or used.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
• For example, in Java, if the programmer does not explicitly initialize a variable, then the code could produce a compile-time error (if the variable is local) or automatically initialize the variable to the default value for the variable’s type. In Perl, if explicit initialization is not performed, then a default value of undef is assigned, which is interpreted as 0, false, or an equivalent value depending on the context in which the variable is accessed.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/26.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/29.html

References

• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212317
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212323
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212324
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212325
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212326
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212327