Iphone OsOperating system · Apple

CVE-2015-5843

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-09-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 8.4.1 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
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
IOMobileFrameBuffer in Apple iOS before 9 allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors.

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

IOMobileFrameBuffer kernel extension in iOS versions before 9 contains a memory corruption vulnerability that allows local users to gain elevated privileges or cause a denial of service. This is a kernel-level flaw requiring local access to the device.

MitigationApply the iOS 9 or later update to all affected devices to patch this vulnerability.

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:<= 8.4.1
WatchosOperating system
Affected:= 1.0

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
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:L/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 on iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch
    Open Settings > General > About and look at the 'Version' field
    Affected if Version displays 8.4.1 or earlier (for example, 8.4, 8.3, 8.2, etc.)
  2. Check WatchOS version on Apple Watch
    Open the Watch app on paired iPhone, go to My Watch > General > About
    Affected if Version displays exactly 1.0
  3. Confirm device type for context
    Identify whether the device is an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Apple Watch
    Affected if Device is an Apple Watch running WatchOS 1.0 specifically, as this is the only affected WatchOS version listed
  4. Note vulnerability scope
    Understand this is a kernel-level flaw in the IOMobileFrameBuffer kernel extension requiring local device access
    Affected if The vulnerability exists regardless of configuration, as it is a memory corruption issue in a core kernel extension

A device is affected if it runs iOS 8.4.1 or any earlier version, or if it runs Apple WatchOS version 1.0 exactly.

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 8.4.1
Interim mitigation

Apply the iOS 9 or later update to all affected devices to patch this vulnerability.

Fix this in Iphone Os Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
3.0 hours of engineering $750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,200.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5843 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-5843 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