CVE-2026-28971

Overview

Advisory: Apple Security Advisory

Impact:

Description: A malicious iframe may use another website’s download settings

Researchers: Khiem Tran

Attribute Value
CVE CVE-2026-28971
Bugzilla 311288
Component WebKit
Bug Class LogicError
Severity medium
Commit 4b574bf8287b6b57…
Advisory Apple Advisory

Root Cause Analysis

Safe Browsing checks were asynchronous and could complete after the navigation policy decision had already proceeded to download. This allowed malicious downloads to start before the Safe Browsing warning was shown. Fix: decidePolicyForNavigationAction and decidePolicyForResponseShared now defer download decisions until whenSafeBrowsingCheckCompletes fires.

Attack Path

1. Step 1

Attacker hosts a known-malicious file on a CDN or compromised site.

2. Step 2

User clicks download link or navigates to the file.

3. Step 3

Safe Browsing check is initiated but takes time.

4. Step 4

Policy decision proceeds to download before Safe Browsing result returns.

5. Step 5

Malicious file downloads without warning; user may execute it.

Files Changed

Source Files

  • Source/WebKit/UIProcess/API/APINavigation.cpp
  • Source/WebKit/UIProcess/API/APINavigation.h
  • Source/WebKit/UIProcess/Cocoa/WebPageProxyCocoa.mm
  • Source/WebKit/UIProcess/WebPageProxy.cpp

Test Files

  • Tools/TestWebKitAPI/Tests/WebKit/WKWebView/SafeBrowsing.mm