Apple Pushes Latest Round of Updates for a Variety of Products
It’s here: the latest round of updates for Apple products has arrived, and it’s a doozy. This series of updates is jam-packed with bug fixes and security updates that iPhone, iPad, and Mac users should all download right away to begin taking advantage of their added safety improvements. Products included in this set of updates are as follows:
- Safari (12.1)
- tvOS (12.2)
- macOS Mojave (10.14.4)
- macOS High Sierra (Update 2019-002)
- macOS Sierra (Update 2019-002)
- iOS (12.2)
If you are using versions prior to those listed above, it’s time to update. Check your settings to ensure you have the latest updates installed.
What kind of bug hunting did Apple get up to in the latest updates? We’ll focus on iOS 12.2 in greater detail, but broadly speaking, these updates secure your devices against a range of flaws that could allow hackers to gain the ability to run their own code on your devices. Many of the flaws patched in this release include WebKit vulnerabilities. In other words, merely visiting the right kind of malicious website could allow attackers to exploit these loopholes.
The macOS patch closes a hole that would’ve allowed malware to trick Gatekeeper into allowing it to run while also closing a loophole that could allow someone with local access to read locked notes. It also closes the “KeyStealer” bug demonstrated publicly by a security researcher in recent months. iOS fixes included patches for severe bugs that granted apps and websites unauthorized and secret access to the user’s microphone, along with a Siri vulnerability that allowed attackers to activate the digital assistant without any user input whatsoever.
Many of these same flaws also received patches in Safari and tvOS. Some Windows versions of Apple’s software also received updates during this most recent round of patches, including iCloud and iTunes. For developers, there’s also a new incremental version of Xcode available which patches a single vulnerability across other platforms.
As always, users should consider installing these updates as soon as possible, especially because several the bugs patched in both the latest versions of iOS and macOS are considered severe and high-priority. To avoid the need to update manually in the future, SecureMac suggests enabling automatic updates so that you always have access to the latest fixes without the need to worry about doing it yourself. Check out Apple’s own easy how-to guides for enabling automatic updates on both (macOS) and (iOS) devices alike.
