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Iphone OsOperating system · Apple

CVE-2012-3728

MEDIUM · 6.9 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-09-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.1.1 or later.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The kernel in Apple iOS before 6 dereferences invalid pointers during the handling of packet-filter data structures, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted program that makes packet-filter ioctl calls.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

A kernel vulnerability in iOS before version 6 allows local privilege escalation through invalid pointer dereferences when handling packet-filter data structures. Attackers exploit this by crafting programs that make specific packet-filter ioctl calls to trigger the vulnerability.

MitigationUpgrade affected iOS devices to iOS 6 or later, as this vulnerability was patched in the iOS 6 release.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Iphone OsOperating system
Affected:<= 5.1.1= 1.0.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.1.0= 1.1.1= 1.1.2= 1.1.3= 1.1.4= 1.1.5= 2.0= 2.0.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check iOS version
    Go to Settings > General > About on the iOS device and locate the Version field
    Affected if The version displayed is 5.1.1 or earlier, or matches one of these: 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 2.0, or 2.0.0
  2. Identify if packet-filter functionality is accessible
    Determine whether the device has been jailbroken or has third-party applications that can make low-level ioctl calls to the kernel packet-filter interface
    Affected if The device allows direct access to packet-filter ioctl calls through jailbreak tools or sideloaded applications
  3. Verify kernel-level access exists
    Check if untrusted local code execution is possible on the device through any installed applications or exploits
    Affected if The device runs untrusted code that can trigger kernel ioctl requests to the packet-filter subsystem

A device is affected if it runs iOS version 5.1.1 or earlier and an attacker can execute local code that makes packet-filter ioctl calls to trigger the kernel pointer dereference vulnerability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.1.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade affected iOS devices to iOS 6 or later, as this vulnerability was patched in the iOS 6 release.

Fix this in Iphone Os Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-3728 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data