Apple products—your iPhone, iPad, and Mac—are celebrated for security, but even Apple isn’t above software bugs. In early 2025, a critical vulnerability, CVE-2025-46316, was discovered affecting Pages, iOS, and macOS. This bug allowed a maliciously crafted Pages document to force apps to crash or (worse) leak memory contents. Apple fixed this in iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, Pages 15.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1. Let’s break down what happened, why it mattered, and how it was fixed.

What is CVE-2025-46316?

CVE-2025-46316 is an *out-of-bounds read* vulnerability. This means that when the Apple Pages app processed a specially made document, it would read memory from outside where it was supposed to. That can lead to two problems:

App Crashes: Pages or parts of the OS suddenly quit.

- Memory Disclosure: Sensitive info stored in memory (potentially passwords, keys, or just private data) gets leaked to an attacker.

It’s as simple as sending you a weird-looking Pages file—open it, and zap!

Apple’s security notice:
> Apple Security Updates
> Released: February 2025 | CVE-2025-46316
> “Processing a maliciously crafted Pages document may result in unexpected termination or disclosure of process memory.”

Exploit Details: Under the Hood

The vulnerability lives in the Pages file parsing code. Pages documents are basically ZIP archives filled with XML and resources. If you manipulate the XML to break the normal assumptions (for example, by setting a length field to a huge value), Pages’ code could try to read more data than is there.

Let’s imagine a vulnerable function in C

void parse_data(const char* buffer, size_t length) {
    // Vulnerable: assumes requested_size from file is always valid
    size_t requested_size = *((size_t*)buffer);  // value set by attacker!
    char temp[128];
    memcpy(temp, buffer + 8, requested_size); // Out-of-bounds read here if requested_size > 120
    // Do stuff with temp...
}

With a malicious file, an attacker could set requested_size to 4096 (way over the temp buffer), causing memory after buffer to be copied out or accessed, potentially revealing private data.

What Makes Out-of-Bounds Reads Dangerous?

- Information Leaks: Sensitive info in memory sometimes gets exposed to the attacker, helping them figure out encryption keys, passwords, internal app logic, or more.
- App Crashes: If Pages tries to read from memory it doesn’t “own,” the app might crash, sometimes repeatedly, resulting in denial of service.
- Security Chaining: Out-of-bounds reads are prized by attackers as a first step—sometimes they can chain these with other bugs to achieve code execution.

Patched Pseudo-Code

void parse_data(const char* buffer, size_t length) {
    size_t requested_size = *((size_t*)buffer);
    if (requested_size > 120 || requested_size + 8 > length) {
        // Input invalid, reject the file
        return;
    }
    char temp[128];
    memcpy(temp, buffer + 8, requested_size);
    // Safe processing
}

Fixed In

- iOS 26.1
- iPadOS 26.1
- macOS Tahoe 26.1
- Pages 15.1

Solution: Update all devices and apps now. Don’t open suspicious Pages documents from untrusted sources.

References

- Apple Security Advisory - CVE-2025-46316
- What is an Out-of-Bounds Read? (OWASP)
- About Apple security updates
- Apple Pages on the App Store

Conclusion

CVE-2025-46316 is a classic example of how even regular document files can become hacker tools. The fix was quick, and now your data is safer. But it’s a good reminder: always keep your devices updated, and treat unexpected files with caution—even in trusted apps like Pages.

Timeline

Published on: 01/28/2026 17:26:19 UTC
Last modified on: 01/30/2026 16:50:04 UTC