CVE-2015-5840
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 · uneditedThe checkint division routines in removefile in Apple iOS before 9 allow attackers to cause a denial of service (overflow fault and app crash) via crafted data.
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 confidenceA denial of service vulnerability exists in the checkint division routines of the removefile function in Apple iOS versions prior to 9. Attackers can exploit this by providing crafted data that triggers an integer overflow fault, causing the affected application to crash.
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<= 10.10.5= 1.0<= 8.4.1CVSS 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
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
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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Identify the Apple product runningDetermine if the system is Mac OS X, iOS, or watchOS. On Mac, run 'sw_vers' or 'system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType'. On iOS, go to Settings > General > About. On Apple Watch, go to Settings > General > About.Affected if The product is Mac OS X, iOS, or watchOS and the installed version falls within the affected ranges below.
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Check Mac OS X versionRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' or view System Preferences > About. Compare the version number to 10.10.5.Affected if The installed Mac OS X version is 10.10.5 or lower.
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Check iOS versionOn the iOS device, go to Settings > General > About and note the Version field. Compare to 8.4.1.Affected if The installed iOS version is 8.4.1 or lower (i.e., not iOS 9 or later).
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Check watchOS versionOn Apple Watch, open the Watch app on paired iPhone, go to My Watch > General > About, or check directly on the watch at Settings > General > About. The affected version is exactly 1.0.Affected if The installed watchOS version is 1.0.
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Verify removefile availabilityThe removefile function is a system call present in the C library. On Mac OS X, you can verify its presence in the system by checking the man page: 'man removefile' or looking for it in /usr/include/stdio.h. The function exists by default in affected OS versions.Affected if The removefile function is present on the system and the OS version is within the affected ranges, meaning the vulnerability can be triggered.
A user is affected if they are running Mac OS X 10.10.5 or lower, iOS 8.4.1 or lower, or watchOS 1.0, where the removefile system call contains the vulnerable checkint division routines.
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 dataUpgrade affected iOS devices to version 9 or later to patch the vulnerability in the removefile checkint division routines.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5840 — 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-2015-5840 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