Zero-Click, Old Tricks

Anatomy of the 2025 WhatsApp/ImageIO zero-click exploit chain (CVE-2025-55177 + CVE-2025-43300). Research paper plus an interactive web companion with CVE walkthroughs, patch diffs, and hands-on heap/stack labs.

Live site: https://mcs.danielwagner.ro Paper (PDF): write-primitive-exploits-ios-to-linux-root.pdf Talk slides: https://mcs.danielwagner.ro/slides (Manim Community deck, 16 scenes, source under manim/)

Team

• Ștefan-Daniel Wagner · co-author
• Dan-Gabriel Oltean · co-author
• Victor-Nicolae Matveev · co-author
• conf. univ. dr. Emil Simion · coordinator (FSA, UNSTPB)

Facultatea de Științe Aplicate, UNSTPB · Master's research project, Metodologia Cercetării Științifice, 2025-2026.

Screenshots

Home. Landing page with a terminal-styled hero, the chain's one-line abstract, a stats strip (CVSS, CWE classes, affected iOS range), feature cards, and a mini timeline of the disclosure window.

Paper reader. Paper sections rendered inline with IEEE-style numbering, cross-references, and figure captions. Sticky progress bar at the top, floating chapter nav on the right, prev/next at the bottom.

Heap lab. Step-by-step heap-overflow walkthrough from Exploit Education Phoenix. Memory pane, gdb pane, and a chunk-level diagram update live as you advance through the steps (benign → overflow → hijack).

CVEs. Structured per-CVE breakdown. For each: advisory, CWE class, affected versions, root cause in two sentences, and a link to the patch-diff page.

Project layout

.
├── write-primitive-exploits-ios-to-linux-root.pdf   final paper (CC BY 4.0)
├── web/                        Flask companion site (MIT)
│   ├── app.py
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   ├── templates/
│   └── static/
│       ├── css/
│       ├── js/
│       ├── sections/           pre-rendered paper sections
│       ├── figures/            TikZ SVGs
│       ├── downloads/          PDF served by the site
│       └── generated/          Manim deck bundle (write-primitive-exploits-2026.html)
├── manim/                      Manim Community deck source (16 scenes)
│   └── src/slides/             s01..s19 scene files
├── resources/                  bibliography (open-access local copies + links)
│   └── README.md               full reference list with sources
└── docs/screenshots/           screenshots used in this README

Run the web companion locally

Requires Python 3.12+.

cd web
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate          # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Open http://localhost:5000. The site is fully static-backed; paper sections, figures, and downloadables are pre-built.

License

Dual-licensed:

• Code (everything under web/ and manim/): MIT
• Paper content (write-primitive-exploits-ios-to-linux-root.pdf, derived rendered sections under web/static/sections/ and figures under web/static/figures/): CC BY 4.0