Vulnerability report

Trusted Third Party Report Confirmed Confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2023-41990

iOS and iPadOS

Apple / iOS and iPadOS · affected before 16.3

Watch CVE-2023-41990 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Trusted Third Party Report
EPSS
1.4%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-41990 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Apple iOS and iPadOS, tvOS, macOS, watchOS. The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches.

Have exploitation attempts been observed?

Yes. Exploitation attempts have been reported for this vulnerability. Previdian lists it as a known exploited vulnerability. Listed in CISA KEV. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

Affected products include Apple / iOS and iPadOS and 3 other products, including affected before 16.3, affected before 15.7, and affected before 11.7.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches

The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches. This issue is fixed in tvOS 16.3, iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3, macOS Monterey 12.6.8, macOS Big Sur 11.7.9, iOS 15.7.8 and iPadOS 15.7.8, macOS Ventura 13.2, watchOS 9.3.

Processing a font file may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.7.1.

Apple Affected
iOS and iPadOS
Before 16.3 Before 15.7
Apple Affected
tvOS
Before 16.3
Apple Affected
macOS
Before 11.7 Before 13.2 Before 12.6
Apple Affected
watchOS
Before 9.3
Published
11 Sep 2023
Exploitation Attempts Reported
08 Jan 2024
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required

Tags

macos ios cisa nessus_scanner

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Evidence of exploitation attempts

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploitation Attempts Observed in the Wild

CISA

Recorded 08 Jan 2024

A trusted third party reported exploitation attempts.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2024-01-08 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/200523 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.8 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

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

EPSS

1.4%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation attempts

  1. 09:26 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 23:29 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 17:40 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2023-41990

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-41990",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.01388,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}