Your smartphone and other devices aren’t as safe as you thought. Hackers and bad actors target devices for several reasons, such as financial gain, accessing valuable data, conducting ransom attacks, espionage, malicious intent, botnet recruitment, and exploiting vulnerabilities. To protect against these threats, it’s crucial to stay vigilant, update devices regularly, use strong passwords and two-factor authentication, and exercise caution online.
MacRumors reports that Apple rolled out new updates yesterday, including iOS 16.5.1, iPadOS 16.5.1, macOS 13.4.1, and watchOS 9.5.2. These software updates primarily focus on enhancing security measures. It is strongly advised to update your devices immediately to address the existing vulnerabilities that may be exploited.
These updates resolve two vulnerabilities that could have been exploited by hackers and malicious individuals to carry out system attacks.
One of the vulnerabilities pertains to the kernel, which, if left unpatched, could enable arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges. The update tackles this issue by improving input validation for an integer overflow. Apple has been made aware of a potential exploit targeting versions of iOS released prior to iOS 15.7. If you are already running iOS 16, it is likely that you are protected.
The second vulnerability lies within WebKit, where maliciously crafted web content could execute unauthorised code. Apple has received a report suggesting active exploitation of this vulnerability.
To ensure the security of your devices, it is recommended to update your devices running iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and watchOS 9. Also, if you possess older devices, Apple has released iOS 15.7.7, iPadOS 15.7.7, watchOS 8.8.1, macOS 11.7.8, and macOS 12.6.7 for them as well.
