If you own an Apple device in August 2022 and there’s an update available, don’t delay. Check your updates ASAP and get things sorted.
There’s a much-needed Apple patch that’s popped up, and it is a must have thing to do this weekend, especially if you’re using the default web browser.
That may not be as critical a thing for Mac owners who rely on Chrome or Firefox, but given Safari can still pop up from time to time, it’ll be important, and with most iPhone and iPad users reliant on Safari as the default web browser, it definitely apple is to them.
The patch deals with a vulnerability found in Apple’s webpage rendering system, WebKit, which is part of Safari, but not the only webpage rendering platform out there. Chrome, Edge, and Firefox run on Chromium, but Apple’s Safari uses WebKit, as do any apps made with a “WebView” on the App Store, meaning this exploit can affect any one using any one of those.
The hack is pretty aggressive, and allows a webpage to trick a device to run a piece of code that could allow a hacker to gain external access to the device.
In short, the vulnerability could give criminals access to your phone to control it, whether or not you want it to in the first place. Hardly the sort of thing anyone wants to have happen to their device.
As a result, Apple’s update release system saw two updates across iOS and iPadOS, as well as its computer OS, macOS, which are needed for the operating system and for the browser functionality.
According to Apple’s documentation, the current iPhone 13 range, while the iPadOS update is for quite a few iPad models including the iPad Pro. Even the iPod Touch 7th generation is mentioned, basically making the security update for any iOS device that saw updates to iOS 15.
Meanwhile, a clearly related update for the operating system kernel and WebKit is available for macOS Monterey, in which Apple describes the impact of being able to execute code that “may have been actively exploited”.
That’s one of the points worth heeding about why this update is needed as a matter of priority: the vulnerability is being used by criminals, making it important to update your device immediately to risk any impact.
