Apple Warns of Active “Zero-Day” Vulnerability in iOS, iPadOS and macOS - August 26, 2025

Cupertino, CA - Apple has issued an urgent security advisory today after discovering and patching a critical zero-day vulnerability affecting its ImageIO framework across iOS, iPadOS and macOS platforms. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-43300, allows remote attackers to trigger an out-of-bounds write when processing a specially crafted image file, leading to memory corruption and potential arbitrary code execution on targeted devices.

According to Apple’s advisory, the vulnerability “may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals,” prompting the company to release emergency updates for:

• iOS 18.6.2 and iPadOS 18.6.2 on supported iPhone and iPad models
• iPadOS 17.7.10 on older iPad hardware
• macOS Sequoia 15.6.1, Sonoma 14.7.8, and Ventura 13.7.8

In its announcement, Apple stated that improved bounds checking has been applied to close the loophole and urged all users to install the updates immediately to mitigate any ongoing threats.

Security experts note that Apple’s choice of wording-highlighting “extremely sophisticated” exploitation-often signals involvement by advanced persistent threat actors or state-sponsored groups. Historically, such targeted zero-day attacks begin narrowly but can later spill into broader campaigns once details of the exploit become public. As a precaution, cybersecurity vendors are recommending that organizations and high-risk individuals accelerate deployment of the latest patches.

In a broader context, the incident underscores a growing trend toward AI-driven threat prevention platforms, which leverage machine learning to proactively detect and remediate unknown vulnerabilities rather than relying solely on reactive patching. Industry analysts suggest that as zero-day discovery and exploitation accelerate, integrating AI into security workflows may become essential for staying ahead of sophisticated attackers.