Apple Fixes Groundbreaking Pointer Infoleak in macOS/iOS Serialization (2025)
Executive Summary
In March 2025, Apple patched a novel vulnerability in macOS and iOS after research by Google Project Zero revealed a pointer information leak in the way Apple's Foundation framework handled serialization and deserialization via NSKeyedArchiver and NSKeyedUnarchiver. The flaw allowed attackers to deduce memory address information—specifically, the address of the NSNull singleton—by crafting serialized data and analyzing the ordering of keys upon re-serialization, without exploiting any memory corruption or timing attacks. This potential leak could subvert Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), a key memory protection mechanism, if leveraged in real-world attack surfaces that allow roundtripping of attacker-supplied serialized objects. Although the direct impact was mitigated by Apple’s 31 March 2025 security update, the disclosure highlights an overlooked class of pointer leak vulnerabilities inherent in pointer-keyed data structures, especially where object addresses serve as hash values.
This incident is significant in the context of a broader industry trend: attackers are increasingly pursuing remote and non-traditional side channels for ASLR bypasses and memory leaks, while defenders must contend with the residual risks of serialization and legacy data structure design. Regulatory and customer pressure continues to rise for organizations to ensure modern memory safety, especially as zero trust and data segmentation architectures rely on robust underlying primitives.
Why This Matters Now
The Apple pointer leak underscores the persistent risk of serialization-related exposures, even without classic memory safety defects. With attackers refining techniques to bypass ASLR, and cloud-native or zero trust environments relying on complex object graphs, this kind of subtle infoleak presents an urgent call for reviewing and modernizing data structure usage in security-sensitive systems.
Attack Path Analysis
An attacker delivers carefully crafted serialized data to a vulnerable service that deserializes and reserializes objects, enabling remote disclosure of memory addresses (pointer leaks) via observerable reordered keys. Gaining insight into address layouts could assist later exploits through precise memory targeting. Lateral movement would depend on leveraging leaked pointers to escalate or pivot processes. The attacker may establish a covert channel with the target service to receive the re-serialized data, exfiltrating sensitive memory layout information. If successful, the attacker could enable further exploitation or weaken system memory protections, leading to potential compromise, data access, or service degradation.
Kill Chain Progression
Initial Compromise
Description
Attacker sends a crafted serialized payload to a deserialization endpoint exposed by the target, exploiting the lack of strong deserialization controls.
Related CVEs
CVE-2025-24201
CVSS 8.8An out-of-bounds write issue in WebKit allows malicious web content to escape the Web Content sandbox, potentially leading to unauthorized access to other parts of the system.
Affected Products:
Apple iOS – < 18.3.2
Apple iPadOS – < 18.3.2
Apple macOS Sequoia – < 15.3.2
Apple Safari – < 18.3.1
Exploit Status:
exploited in the wildCVE-2025-24200
CVSS 9.8A vulnerability in Apple's operating systems allows an app to potentially access sensitive user data due to inadequate restrictions on data container access.
Affected Products:
Apple macOS Sequoia – < 15.4
Apple macOS Sonoma – < 14.7.5
Apple macOS Ventura – < 13.7.5
Exploit Status:
exploited in the wildCVE-2025-24085
CVSS 9.8A vulnerability in Apple's operating systems that allows an app to potentially access sensitive user data due to inadequate restrictions on data container access.
Affected Products:
Apple iOS – < 18.4
Apple iPadOS – < 18.4
Apple macOS Sequoia – < 15.4
Apple macOS Sonoma – < 14.7.5
Apple macOS Ventura – < 13.7.5
Exploit Status:
exploited in the wild
MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques
OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory
Exploitation for Defense Evasion
Container Administration Command
Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Direct Volume Access
Escape to Host
Exploitation for Client Execution
Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information
Potential Compliance Exposure
Mapping incident impact across multiple compliance frameworks.
PCI DSS 4.0 – Addressing Security Vulnerabilities
Control ID: 6.2.1
NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500 – Cybersecurity Policy
Control ID: 500.03
NIS2 Directive – Vulnerability Handling
Control ID: Article 21(2)(d)
DORA – ICT Risk Management
Control ID: Art. 9
CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model 2.0 – Preventing Memory and Pointer-Based Attacks
Control ID: Identity Pillar: Device Security
Sector Implications
Industry-specific impact of the vulnerabilities, including operational, regulatory, and cloud security risks.
Computer Software/Engineering
Vulnerability research on pointer leaks through serialization affects software development practices, requiring enhanced secure coding and memory safety protections.
Computer/Network Security
Pointer-keyed data structure vulnerabilities impact security product development, threat detection capabilities, and zero trust segmentation implementations requiring immediate attention.
Financial Services
Serialization-based pointer leaks threaten encrypted traffic protection and compliance frameworks like PCI DSS, requiring enhanced data security measures.
Health Care / Life Sciences
Memory safety vulnerabilities in serialization processes risk HIPAA compliance violations and patient data protection through potential ASLR bypass attacks.
Sources
- Pointer leaks through pointer-keyed data structureshttps://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2025/09/pointer-leaks-through-pointer-keyed.htmlVerified
- Alert: Apple Security Updates – March 2025https://cyber.gov.rw/updates/article/alert-apple-security-updates-march-2025/Verified
- Apple security advisory (AV25-177)https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/alerts-advisories/apple-security-advisory-av25-177Verified
- Apple closes zero-day exploithttps://cybernews.com/security/apple-fixes-zero-day-webkit/Verified
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF
Zero Trust Segmentation, egress policy enforcement, and East-West traffic controls would have limited the attack surface, isolated untrusted traffic, and detected/blocked anomalous data flows to prevent pointer leaks and exfiltration. Inline threat detection and visibility could have alerted security teams to suspicious deserialization or outbound data transfer.
Control: Zero Trust Segmentation
Mitigation: Reduces exposure of deserialization services to untrusted sources.
Control: Threat Detection & Anomaly Response
Mitigation: Detects unusual application behavior or attempted exploits in workload traffic.
Control: East-West Traffic Security
Mitigation: Blocks or flags lateral movement attempts between workloads.
Control: Multicloud Visibility & Control
Mitigation: Identifies and alerts on suspicious external command-and-control patterns.
Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement
Mitigation: Prevents exfiltration of sensitive data to unauthorized endpoints.
Reduces impact through real-time distributed policy enforcement and rapid response.
Impact at a Glance
Affected Business Functions
- Data Security
- User Privacy
Estimated downtime: N/A
Estimated loss: N/A
Potential unauthorized access to sensitive user data due to vulnerabilities in Apple's operating systems.
Recommended Actions
Key Takeaways & Next Steps
- • Implement Zero Trust Segmentation to strictly control access to deserialization endpoints and reduce application attack surface.
- • Apply East-West Traffic Security and microsegmentation to prevent lateral movement and isolate suspicious internal flows.
- • Enforce Egress Security policies to block unauthorized outbound traffic and exfiltration of sensitive/informational data.
- • Deploy Threat Detection & Anomaly Response to gain real-time insights into abnormal serialization/deserialization behaviors and alert incident responders.
- • Utilize Multicloud Visibility & Control for centralized observability, ensuring rapid detection of policy violations or covert C2 activity.
