Apple has issued an urgent security advisory about 3 critical zero-day vulnerabilities—CVE-2025-24200, CVE-2025-24201, and CVE-2025-24085—that are being actively exploited in advanced attacks.
Multiple Apple devices, including iPhones, iPads, and Macs, are affected by these vulnerabilities. Users should update their devices right away to reduce security risks.
Significant Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitation:
CVE-2025-24200:
CVE-2025-24200 is an authorization flaw that allows attackers to disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device through a physical attack.
According to Apple’s advisory, this vulnerability “may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals”.
Bill Marczak from The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School discovered and reported the flaw.
A malicious person can turn off USB Restricted Mode on a locked device during a cyber-physical attack.
USB Restricted Mode, added in iOS 11.4.1, stops iOS and iPadOS devices from connecting with accessories if the device hasn’t been unlocked in the last hour. This is an important security feature aimed at blocking forensic tools.
CVE-2025-24201:
CVE-2025-24201 is a vulnerability in WebKit, the browser engine used by Safari and several iOS apps. This out-of-bounds write issue could let malicious web content escape the Web Content sandbox.
Apple calls this “a supplementary fix for an attack blocked in iOS 17.2” and notes that it may have been used in a highly sophisticated attack targeting specific individuals on versions prior to iOS 17.2.
CVE-2025-24085:
CVE-2025-24085 is a use-after-free vulnerability in CoreMedia, the framework that handles audio and video playback on Apple devices. Apple’s advisory states that a malicious application could gain elevated privileges. This vulnerability impacts various Apple operating systems: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
The flaw has been actively exploited against older versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.
Mitigation Steps:
Apple has provided updates for all three vulnerabilities on its devices and operating systems:
Update your devices as follows:
iPhones and iPads: iOS 18.3/iPadOS 18.3 or later
Macs: macOS Sequoia 15.3 or later
Apple Watches: watchOS 11.3 or newer
Apple TVs: tvOS 18.3
Apple Vision Pro: visionOS 2.3 updates
To update device:
Navigate to Settings > General > Software Update.
Enable automatic updates for future patches.