Why You Should Upgrade to IOS 16 Even If You’re Not Interested in New Features
There are many reasons to update your iPhone to iOS 16 . You can customize your lock screen the way you want, edit and cancel iMessages , and even see your iPhone’s battery percentage again . While these new features and changes deserve an update, none of them are as up-to-date as the latest security update.
Apple’s latest update patch fixes several security vulnerabilities: the latest iPhone and iPad updates fix 11 such vulnerabilities, and the latest Mac updates fix eight for macOS Monterey and 10 for macOS Big Sur.
Usually security vulnerabilities are a concern, but not as urgent because Apple and third parties are the only ones who know about the vulnerabilities, or at least know how to exploit them. While it’s important to update quickly, it’s often not the deciding factor. However, as it turns out, one such vulnerabilities is Day Zero with a known exploit in the wild . According to Apple, the company “is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited. If true, it means that someone knows how to use this vulnerability against you, potentially putting your iPhone, iPad, and Mac at risk.
The vulnerability in question is identified as CVE-2022-32917 and allows attackers to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. In short, attackers can run any code on your system, taking full control of the device. This situation means that you need to update your devices as soon as possible.
Which Apple devices have received security updates?
Well, in short, everything. Apple has released updates for iPhone, iPad, Macs, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, even if those devices don’t support the latest updates. For example, for iPhones that are not eligible for iOS 16, there is iOS 15.7, which includes all the same fixes as in Apple’s new update. However, it is not clear if the tvOS and watchOS security updates include a fix for the vulnerability, or if these devices are primarily affected by the vulnerability.
You can find the changelogs for the following security updates below:
- iOS 16
- iOS 15.7
- iPadOS 15.7
- macOS Monterey 12.6
- macOS Big Sur 11.7
- tvOS 16 (security info coming soon)
- watchOS 9 (security details coming soon)
[ Hacker News ]