Security News
Apple has released emergency security updates to address a new zero-day vulnerability used in attacks to hack iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The zero-day patched today is tracked as CVE-2023-23529 [1, 2] and is a WebKit confusion issue that could be exploited to trigger OS crashes and gain code execution on compromised devices.
On Monday, Apple released iOS 12.5.7 for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and sixth-generation iPod touch. "Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution," Apple warned in the security update.
Last year, on the last day of August 2022, we wrote with mild astonishment, and perhaps even a tiny touch of excitement, about an unexpected but rather important update for iPhones stuck back on iOS 12. As we remarked at the time, we'd already decided that iOS 12 had slipped off Apple's radar, and would never be updated again, give that the previous update had been a year before that, back in September 2021.
Apple "Unlawfully records and uses consumers' personal information and activity," claims a new lawsuit accusing the company of tracking iPhone users' device data even when they've asked for tracking to be switched off. The would-be class action lawsuit, filed in Pennsylvania, accuses [PDF] Apple of violating Pennsylvania's Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, as well as breaching its trade practices and consumer protection law by "Representing that its mobile devices enable users to choose settings that would stop defendant from collecting or tracking their private data - a feature they do not have."
The most recent iPhone update-to version 16.1.2-patches a zero-day vulnerability that "May have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.1.". Apple said security researchers at Google's Threat Analysis Group, which investigates nation state-backed spyware, hacking and cyberattacks, discovered and reported the WebKit bug.
In security updates released today, Apple has fixed the tenth zero-day vulnerability since the start of the year, with this latest one actively used in attacks against iPhones. In October, Apple fixed a zero-day in the iOS Kernel.
In security updates released today, Apple has fixed the tenth zero-day vulnerability since the start of the year, with this latest one actively used in attacks against iPhones.The vulnerability was disclosed in security bulletins released today for iOS/iPadOS 15.7.2, Safari 16.2, tvOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1, with Apple warning that the flaw "May have been actively exploited" against previous versions.
In brief Apple has patched an iOS and iPad OS vulnerability that's already been exploited. Apple issued patches for iOS 16.1 and iPad OS 16, to address this and 19 other vulnerabilities.
Why did a single security bulletin describe updates dubbed iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16? We know that iPadOS 16 was delayed, so did this recent update mean that iPadOS was now getting patched only to the same security level as iOS 16, which came out more than a month ago, while iOS advanced to 16.1, thus leaving iPadOS more than five weeks adrift in cybersecurity terms? Why did iPadOS 16 ultimately report itself as version 16.1? After updating, the About screen apparently says iPadOS 16, like the security bulletin did, while the iPadOS Version screen explicitly says 16.1. It sounds as though iPhones and iPads now not only both support "The version family known as 16", but also both have the very latest security fixes, so why not simply call both of them version 16.1 everywhere for clarity, including in the security bulletin and on the About screen? Where did macOS 10 Catalina go? Traditionally, Apple drops support for macOS version X-3 when version X comes out, but is that the actual explanation of why macOS 11 Big Sur and macOS 12 Monterey got updates while Catalina didn't? What happened to iOS/iPadOS 15.7.1? When iOS 16 came out in September 2022, the previous version family received critical updates as well, taking it to version 15.7.
Apple has released new security updates to backport patches released earlier this week to older iPhones and iPads, addressing an actively exploited zero-day bug. Apple addressed the zero-day vulnerability in iOS 15.7.1 and iPadOS 15.7.1 today with improved bounds checking.