Be careful if you use a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad! Apple recommends updating all its devices without delay to close two serious security flaws already exploited by hackers…
If you’re using an Apple product—a Mac, iPhone, or iPad—you need to update it urgently. Indeed, the apple firm has just published this Wednesday August 17 and Thursday August 18 new versions of its various operating systems – macOS, iOS and iPadOS – to fix two serious security flaws that have just been discovered by anonymous experts – so-called zero-day flaws in the jargon – but which are already being actively exploited by hackers. Despite the reputation of high security of its products, Apple is not immune to concerns and in particular vulnerabilities, like other IT players. But it has the merit of reacting fairly quickly in general when problems arise, as is the case here.
Apple: a security update to protect yourself
Stamped CVE-2022-32894, the first flaw identified results from a memory writing bug and would allow executing arbitrary code with the privileges of the system kernel (the kernel). The second, referenced CVE-2022-32893, concerns WebKit, a rendering engine used in Safari but also in third-party browsers such as Chrome: it would allow the execution directly in the browser of malicious code injected into Web content. In practice, these two vulnerabilities would make it possible to take control of a device remotely, which is rather worrying.
According to Apple, with the first flaw, “an application may use arbitrary code” with unauthorized access to the innards of the system. In other words, a hacker can perform actions without any permission from the device user. The other flaw is exploitable via “maliciously crafted internet content” – corrupt applications, extensions and web pages. Without going into details, Apple simply states that “these possibilities could have been actively exploited” by pirates, which is hardly reassuring.
These issues affect iPhone 6s and later, as well as all iPad Pros, fifth-generation iPads and later, as well as Macs. Apple therefore strongly encourages its users to perform the following updates, as indicated on its support page dedicated to security updates:
- For macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina users, download Safari 15.6.1;
- For users of other Mac computers, download macOS Monterey 12.5.1 ;
- For iPhone users, download the version 15.6.1 from iOS;
- For iPad Pro users, the iPad 5e generation, the iPad Mini 4 from the iPad Air 2, you must download version 15.6.1 of iPadOS.
How to update the operating system on an Apple device?
To update the operating system of your iPhone or iPad, go to Settingsthen click Generaland finally choose Software update. If you are a Mac user, click on the Apple menu, at the top left of the screen, choose System Preferencesthen click Software update. This will restart the device – which tends to discourage many people from performing the manipulation – but remember that these updates are absolutely essential to your security and the proper functioning of your device.