CVE-2014-1285
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 · uneditedSpringboard in Apple iOS before 7.1 allows physically proximate attackers to bypass intended access restrictions and read the home screen by leveraging an application crash during activation of an unactivated device.
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 · moderate confidenceThe vulnerability exists in Springboard (iOS home screen manager) in versions before 7.1. An attacker with physical access to an unactivated iOS device can cause an application crash during the activation process, which allows them to bypass intended access restrictions and view the home screen. This bypasses the normal activation lock that should prevent access to an unconfigured device.
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<= 7.0.6= 7.0= 7.0.1= 7.0.2= 7.0.3= 7.0.4= 7.0.5CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Inventory iOS devices in your environmentUse MDM software (such as Jamf, Microsoft Intune, or Cisco Meraki), Apple Configurator, or your device management database to list all enrolled iOS devices. For manual checks, open Settings > General > About on each device.Affected if Any iOS devices are present in the environment
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Check iOS version on each deviceFor MDM-enrolled devices, query the device inventory for the OS version field. For manual inspection, go to Settings > General > About and note the Version number (e.g., 7.0.4).Affected if Device shows iOS version 7.0, 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, or 7.0.6
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Determine device activation stateCheck whether the device has completed iOS setup wizard and is bound to an Apple ID. An unactivated device is one that has never been set up or has been restored to factory settings and is at the 'Hello' welcome screen.Affected if Device is in unactivated/factory reset state and runs a vulnerable iOS version
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Verify Springboard is the default home screen managerThis is inherent to iOS; no configuration check needed. Springboard is the default home screen manager in all affected iOS 7.x versions.Affected if Device runs any affected iOS 7.x version (Springboard is always present)
Your environment is affected if you have any iOS devices running versions 7.0 through 7.0.6 that are unactivated or could be placed in an unactivated state by an attacker with physical access.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpdate iOS devices to version 7.1 or later to patch the Springboard vulnerability. Organizations should inventory affected devices and push updates via MDM or ensure users manually update unactivated/new devices.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-1285 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-1285 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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