IpadosOperating system · Apple

CVE-2020-9906

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-10-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.2.8 / 10.13.6 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable 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
A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6, macOS Catalina 10.15.6, watchOS 6.2.8. A remote attacker may be able to cause unexpected system termination or corrupt kernel memory.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-20

The application accepts input without confirming it is well-formed or within expected bounds, so malformed data can push the program into states its author never anticipated. Attackers probe these gaps to trigger crashes, bypass logic, or feed tainted values into more dangerous operations downstream. Remediating it well means validating and normalising every input at the boundary against a strict allow-list — not merely filtering known-bad values.

General guidance for the improper input validation class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
IpadosOperating system
Affected:< 13.6
Iphone OsOperating system
Affected:< 13.6
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:>= 10.13, < 10.13.6>= 10.14, < 10.14.6>= 10.15, < 10.15.6= 10.13.6= 10.14.6
WatchosOperating system
Affected:< 6.2.8

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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 6.2.8 / 10.13.6 / 10.14.6 or later
Fixed in 6.2.810.13.610.14.6
Recommended fix High confidence

iOS 13.6 / iPadOS 13.6 / macOS 10.15.6 (or respective security update 10.13.6/10.14.6) / watchOS 6.2.8

  1. For iOS devices: Go to Settings > General > Software Update and install iOS 13.6
  2. For iPadOS devices: Go to Settings > General > Software Update and install iPadOS 13.6
  3. For macOS: Go to System Preferences > Software Update and install the security update (macOS 10.13.6, 10.14.6, or 10.15.6 depending on your version)
  4. For Apple Watch: Pair the watch with iPhone, go to Watch app > General > Software Update and install watchOS 6.2.8

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $2,300. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2020-9906 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