Security News > 2022 > August > URGENT! Apple slips out zero-day update for older iPhones and iPads

Our much-loved iPhone 6+, now nearly eight years old but in pristine, as-new condition until a recent UDI, hasn't received any security updates from Apple for almost a year.

The last update we received was back on 2021-09-23, when we updated to iOS 12.5.5.

Every subsequent update for iOS and iPadOS 15 has understandably reinforced our assumption that Apple had dropped iOS 12 support for evermore, and so we relegated the old iPhone to background duty, solely as an emergency device for maps or phone calls while on the road. But we've just noticed that Apple has decided to update iOS 12 again after all.

We didn't receive a Security Advisory email from Apple, but an alert Naked Security reader who knows we still have that old iPhone 6+ let us know about Apple Security Bulletin HT213428.

We're guessing that Apple must have come across at least some high-profile users of older phones who were compromised in this way, and decided to push out protection for everyone as a special precaution.

We now know that the absence of an update for iOS 12 when the latest emergency patches came out for more recent iPhones was not down to the fact that iOS was already safe.

News URL

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2022/08/31/urgent-apple-quietly-slips-out-zero-day-update-for-older-iphones/