Apple patches two security vulnerabilities on iPhone, iPad and Mac
You'll want to update as soon as possible to fix them.
Apple pushed updates to iOS, iPadOS and macOS software today to patch two zero-day security vulnerabilities. The company suggested the bugs had been actively deployed in the wild. “Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 16.7.1,” the company wrote about both flaws in its security reports. Software updates plugging the holes are now available for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Researcher Clément Lecigne of Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) is credited with discovering and reporting both exploits. As Bleeping Computer notes, the team at Google TAG often finds and exposes zero-day bugs against high-risk individuals, like politicians, journalists and dissidents. Apple didn’t reveal specifics about the nature of any attacks using the flaws.
The two security flaws affected WebKit, Apple’s open-source browser framework powering Safari. In Apple’s description of the first bug, it said, “Processing web content may disclose sensitive information.” In the second, it wrote, “Processing web content may lead to arbitrary code execution.”
The security patches cover the “iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 2nd generation and later, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 6th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later.”
The odds your devices were affected by either of these are extremely minimal, so there’s no need to panic — but, to be safe, it would be wise to update your Apple gear now. You can update your iPhone or iPad immediately by heading to Settings > General > Software Update and tapping the prompt to initiate it. On Mac, go to System Settings > General > Software Update and do the same. Apple’s fixes arrived today in iOS 17.1.2, iPadOS 17.1.2 and macOS Sonoma 14.1.2.
