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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 10 Aug 2022.
Iphone OsOperating system · Apple

CVE-2014-4404

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2014-09-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.0 / 8.0 or later.
See remediation →
97/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild No privileges

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
Heap-based buffer overflow in IOHIDFamily in Apple iOS before 8 and Apple TV before 7 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code in a privileged context via an application that provides crafted key-mapping properties.

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

Heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the IOHIDFamily kernel extension allows a malicious iOS/Apple TV application to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by providing specially crafted key-mapping properties to the HID subsystem.

MitigationUpdate affected devices to iOS 8 or later and Apple TV 7 or later to receive the security patch.

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:< 8.0
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:< 10.10.0>= 10.10.1, < 10.10.3
TvosOperating system
Affected:< 7.0

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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. Identify the operating system product and version
    On iOS/Apple TV, go to Settings > General > About to find the version. On macOS, run 'sw_vers' in Terminal or check System Preferences > About.
    Affected if The OS is iPhone OS < 8.0, tvOS < 7.0, or macOS < 10.10.0 / 10.10.1-10.10.2.
  2. Confirm the OS type is vulnerable
    If running iOS or tvOS, the version number directly determines exposure. If running macOS, verify the exact build number matches the affected range.
    Affected if The system runs iOS before 8.0, tvOS before 7.0, or macOS 10.10.0 through 10.10.2.
  3. Check if IOHIDFamily kernel extension is present
    On macOS, run 'kextstat | grep IOHIDFamily' in Terminal. On iOS/tvOS, this kernel extension is present by default on devices with HID support.
    Affected if The IOHIDFamily kernel extension is loaded on the system (which is default for devices supporting keyboards, mice, or game controllers).
  4. Verify HID subsystem is accessible to applications
    Check if the system has active HID devices or allows HID input (keyboards, game controllers, etc.). This is typically always enabled on consumer devices.
    Affected if The system has any HID input devices connected or has the HID subsystem active, which is the default state for iOS, tvOS, and macOS systems.

A system is affected if it runs iOS before 8.0, tvOS before 7.0, or macOS 10.10.0-10.10.2 and has the IOHIDFamily kernel extension active (which is the default for consumer Apple devices with input device support).

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.0 / 8.0 / 10.10.0 or later
Fixed in 7.08.010.10.0
Interim mitigation

Update affected devices to iOS 8 or later and Apple TV 7 or later to receive the security patch.

Recommended fix High confidence

iOS 8.0+ | OS X 10.10.3 (Yosemite)+ | tvOS 7.0+

  1. Identify the affected Apple device type (iPhone/iPad, Mac, or Apple TV)
  2. For iOS devices: Upgrade to iOS 8.0 or later via Settings > General > Software Update
  3. For Mac systems: Upgrade to OS X 10.10.3 (Yosemite) or later via the Mac App Store
  4. For Apple TV: Upgrade to tvOS 7.0 or later (for Apple TV 3rd generation or earlier, this may require manual firmware update via iTunes)
  5. After upgrading, verify the IOHIDFamily component version is patched
Caveat iOS 8 introduced significant UI changes; some older apps may be incompatible. OS X 10.10.3 requires a Mac supported by Yosemite. Some legacy hardware may not support these updates.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Iphone Os Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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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-2014-4404 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