CVE-2020-9773: 
macOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2020-9773 is a security vulnerability discovered in iOS and iPadOS that affects iPhone 6s and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad mini 4 and later, and iPod touch (7th generation) devices. The vulnerability was fixed with the release of iOS 14.0 and iPadOS 14.0 on September 16, 2020. The issue allows a malicious application to identify what other applications a user has installed on their device through improper handling of icon caches (Apple Support, Threatpost).

The vulnerability stems from improper handling of icon caches in iOS and iPadOS. The issue was addressed by Apple through improved handling of icon cache mechanisms. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 Base Score of 3.3 (LOW) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, indicating local access is required and the impact is primarily limited to confidentiality (NVD).

The primary impact of this vulnerability is privacy-related, as it allows malicious applications to identify other applications installed on a user's device. This could enable attackers to gather information about a user's app usage patterns and installed software, potentially leading to targeted attacks or user profiling (Apple Support).

Apple addressed this vulnerability by improving the handling of icon caches in iOS 14.0 and iPadOS 14.0. Users are advised to update their devices to these versions or later to protect against this vulnerability. The fix was released as part of a larger security update that addressed multiple vulnerabilities (Apple Support).