CVE-2025-43529
A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in Safari 26.2, iOS 18.7.3 and iPadOS 18.7.3, iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2, tvOS 26.2, visionOS 26.2, watchOS 26.2. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 26. CVE-2025-14174 was also issued in response to this report.
do firstApply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Can a WAF block it? No. This is a use-after-free memory bug. Generic WAF rules do not recognise the input that triggers it; only a rule written for this specific CVE can, and only if the triggering request has a recognisable shape.
Also consider: patch
Based on the weakness type only; no CVE-specific evidence yet. We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.
Is CVE-2025-43529 being exploited?
Yes. CVE-2025-43529 appears in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed and reported. Treat it as active rather than theoretical, and patch it ahead of higher-scoring vulnerabilities that carry no exploitation evidence.
How severe is CVE-2025-43529?
CVE-2025-43529 is rated High with a CVSS score of 8.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2025-43529?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2025-43529. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2025-43529 affect?
CVE-2025-43529 affects apple:safari, apple:ipados, apple:iphone_os, apple:macos, and 3 further products or versions. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
- affected< 18.7.3
- affected< 26.2
- affected< 26.2
- affected< 26.2
- affected< 26.2
- affected< 26.2
- affected< 26.2
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.
public exploits
Unvetted proof-of-concept code on GitHub: 7 GitHub proofs of concept
- 0xjohnnydev/WebKit-UAF-ANGLE-OOB-Analysis · 114 ★
- GenericCoding/pois0nSword · 110 ★
- jir4vv1t/CVE-2025-43529 · 88 ★
- bjrjk/CVE-2025-43529 · 18 ★
Listed so you can judge urgency, not as a recommendation to run anything. GitHub “proofs of concept” are unvetted: some are fake or carry malware. Exploit-DB marks the entries its staff verified.
cisa ssvc
- exploitation
- active
- automatable
- no
- technical impact
- total
Assessed by CISA 18 Dec 2025 (SSVC 2.0.3).
timeline
- 15 Dec 2025Added to CISA KEV (exploited in the wild)
- 17 Dec 2025Published · 3 days later
- 18 Dec 2025CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active · same day later
- 5 Jan 2026First proof-of-concept repository on GitHub (unvetted) · 18 days later
- 5 Jan 2026CISA remediation due date (US federal agencies) · same day later
- 21 Sept 2026CVE record last updated · 260 days (about 9 months) later
- 2 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com · 42 days later
- Linksupport.apple.com /en-us/125884
- Linksupport.apple.com /en-us/125885
- Linksupport.apple.com /en-us/125886
- Linksupport.apple.com /en-us/125889
- Linksupport.apple.com /en-us/125890
- Linksupport.apple.com /en-us/125891
- Linksupport.apple.com /en-us/125892
- Linkcisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-43529
sources
- CVE List (CVE.org): description, affected versions, references; CVE Terms of Use
- NVD: CVSS and CPE data
- CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, due date
- CISA Vulnrichment (ADP): SSVC decision points
- FIRST EPSS: exploit probability and percentile
- PoC-in-GitHub: GitHub repositories that claim a proof of concept
- Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.