Iphone OsOperating system · Apple

CVE-2016-4776

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-09-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.0 / 10.0 or later.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
The kernel in Apple iOS before 10, OS X before 10.12, tvOS before 10, and watchOS before 3 allows attackers to obtain sensitive memory-layout information or cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) via a crafted app, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4773 and CVE-2016-4774.

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

Kernel-level out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Apple iOS <10, OS X <10.12, tvOS <10, and watchOS <3 allowing a crafted app to obtain sensitive memory-layout information (enabling ASLR bypass) or cause a denial of service through the same primitive.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied OS updates (iOS 10+, macOS 10.12+, tvOS 10+, watchOS 3+) to all affected devices to patch the kernel memory disclosure 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:< 10.0
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:< 10.12.0
TvosOperating system
Affected:< 10.0
WatchosOperating system
Affected:< 3.0

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
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/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. Check iOS version on iPhone or iPad
    Go to Settings > General > About and look at the Version field, or use the command 'sw_vers' in a terminal if you have a jailbroken device
    Affected if Version is lower than 10.0 (e.g., 9.x)
  2. Check macOS version on Mac
    Click the Apple menu > About This Mac, or run 'sw_vers' in Terminal and check the ProductVersion
    Affected if Version is lower than 10.12.0 (e.g., 10.11.x or earlier)
  3. Check tvOS version on Apple TV
    Go to Settings > General > About and look at the version number displayed
    Affected if Version is lower than 10.0 (e.g., 9.x)
  4. Check watchOS version on Apple Watch
    Open the Watch app on paired iPhone, go to General > About, or check directly on the watch in Settings > About
    Affected if Version is lower than 3.0 (e.g., 2.x)

You are affected if any of your Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, or Apple Watch) are running an OS version below 10.0 for iOS/tvOS, below 10.12.0 for macOS, or below 3.0 for watchOS.

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 3.0 / 10.0 / 10.12.0 or later
Fixed in 3.010.010.12.0
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor-supplied OS updates (iOS 10+, macOS 10.12+, tvOS 10+, watchOS 3+) to all affected devices to patch the kernel memory disclosure vulnerability.

Fix this in Iphone Os Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4776 — 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-2016-4776 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