Security News

Apple has launched the first Rapid Security Response patches for iOS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1 devices, with some users having issues installing them on their iPhones. As the company describes in a recently published support document, RSR patches are small-sized updates that target the iPhone, iPad, and Mac platforms and patch security issues between major software updates.

A financially-motivated North Korean threat actor is suspected to be behind a new Apple macOS malware strain called RustBucket. The Apple device management company attributed it to a threat actor known as BlueNoroff, a subgroup within the infamous Lazarus cluster that's also tracked under the monikers APT28, Nickel Gladstone, Sapphire Sleet, Stardust Chollima, and TA444.

Threat actors behind the LockBit ransomware operation have developed new artifacts that can encrypt files on devices running Apple's macOS operating system.The development, which was reported by the MalwareHunterTeam over the weekend, appears to be the first time a big-game ransomware crew has created a macOS-based payload. Additional samples identified by vx-underground show that the macOS variant has been available since November 11, 2022, and has managed to evade detection by anti-malware engines until now.

Reports from Microsoft and The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab both conclude that government-serving spyware maker QuaDream used a zero-click exploit targeting Apple devices running iOS 14 to deliver spyware marketed under the name Reign to victims' phones. Once somehow up and running via this method, the spyware was able to exfiltrate various elements of device, carrier, and network info; search for and retrieve files; use the camera in the background; monitor calls; access the iOS keychain; generate iCloud one-time passwords; and more, said Microsoft.

Apple has pushed out security updates that fix two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in macOS, iOS and iPadOS. Reported by researchers Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Donncha Cearbhaill, the head of Amnesty International's Security Lab, the vulnerabilities have been exploited in tandem to achieve full device compromise - with the likely goal to install spyware on target devices. CVE-2023-28206 is an out-of-bounds write issue in IOSurfaceAccelerator that can be exploited by a malicious app to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.

Apple rolled out patches on Good Friday to its iOS, iPadOS, and macOS operating systems and the Safari web browser to address vulnerabilities found by Google and Amnesty International that were exploited in the wild. The updates are to iOS 16.4.1, iPadOS 16.4.1, Safari 16.4.1, and macOS 13.3.1.

Simply put, there were zero days during which even the most proactive and cybersecurity conscious users amongst us could have been patched in advance of the crooks. Just to be clear: the Apple Safari browser uses WebKit for "Processing web content" on all Apple devices, although third-party browsers such as Firefox, Edge and Chromium don't use WebKit on Mac.

Apple has released emergency updates to backport security patches released on Friday, addressing two actively exploited zero-day flaws also affecting older iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The second zero-day is a WebKit use after free that can let threat actors execute malicious code on compromised iPhones, Macs, or iPads after tricking their targets into loading malicious web pages.

Apple on Friday released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari web browser to address a pair of zero-day flaws that are being exploited in the wild. Apple said it addressed CVE-2023-28205 with improved memory management and the second with better input validation, adding it's aware the bugs "May have been actively exploited."

Apple's App Store rules mean that all browsers on iPhones and iPads must use WebKit, making this sort of bug a truly cross-browser problem for mobile Apple devices.Kernel code execution bugs are inevitably much more serious than app-level bugs, because the kernel is responsible for managing the security of the entire system, including what permissions apps can acquire, and how freely apps can share files and data between themselves.