Update IOS 12.4 Now to Block New Vulnerabilities
Most iPhone and iPad owners use iOS 12. Which is good, because you get a faster experience with as many bugs and vulnerabilities fixed as possible. This is especially important given that Google researchers recently uncovered six serious iOS vulnerabilities that Apple addressed in the iOS 12.4 release earlier this month.
Problem? This is twofold. First, there are still many people who don’t use iOS 12 for whatever reason – and probably not even iOS 12.4. While Apple’s own statistics do not provide a breakdown by specific iOS version, the company shows that roughly 13 percent of all iPhones and iPads purchased in the past five years do not run iOS 12. Considering how many devices Apple sells (over a billion iPhones in the period alone 2016 to 2018), 13 percent is far more devices than meets the eye.
Second, one of these “no interaction” bugs that Google researchers have identified has not even been fully fixed in iOS 12.4. They are described as such, as all they need from an attacker is to send you a message – and it could be a text message, multimedia message, iMessage, email, or visual voicemail, as noted by Google security engineer Natalie Silvanovich .
Look at the post and it will execute any nasty code an attacker invented – in four of the six published vulnerabilities. In the other two, it simply reads files from your iPhone or iPad. We hope there is nothing compromising or super secret on your device.
Stop using old versions of iOS
Fortunately, you are protected from five of these six vulnerabilities by updating to iOS 12.4. But you don’t have to wait for us to convince you to check for iOS updates. Create a recurring calendar event every three months with the words UPDATE MY IPHONE in big, annoying text. Or do what I do and keep going to Settings> General> Software Updates because you love living on the front lines.
Heck, starting with iOS 12, you can even turn on automatic updates, although, as Apple points out , you may still need to manually update your device from time to time. (Even though I have this option turned on, I still check my iPhone for updates, probably more than I should.)
If you’re holding on because you like the look and feel of your old iOS version, you should weigh that against the likelihood that an attacker could attack your unpatched device. Are the odds low? Certainly. Would I like to take a chance and have a slower iPhone ? No.