Centre issues high-risk alert for vulnerabilities in iPhones and other Apple products

The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the cybersecurity watchdog of the country, has issued a high-risk warning for a series of vulnerabilities in Apple products, including iPhones.

The apex cybersecurity agency warned that the vulnerabilities in Apple products may allow attackers to access sensitive information of the users.

“Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Apple products which could allow an attacker to access sensitive information, execute arbitrary code, bypass security restrictions, cause denial of service (DoS) conditions, bypass authentication, gain elevated privileges, and perform spoofing attacks on the targeted systems,” read an official statement from CERT-In.

The advisory, issued on Friday, comes after the government body issued a similar high-risk warning for Samsung users, highlighting critical security issues affecting the company's devices running on Android versions 11, 12, 13, and 14.

As per the latest advisory by the CERT-In, the vulnerabilities were found in multiple Apple products, such as iOS, watchOS, iPadOS, and Apple Safari versions older than 17.2. Apple software prone to fall prey to hackers include:

Apple iOS versions prior to 17.2 and iPadOS versions prior to 17.2.

Apple iOS versions prior to 16.7.3 and iPadOS versions prior to 16.7.3.

Apple macOS Sonoma versions prior to 14.2.

Apple macOS Ventura versions prior to 13.6.3.

Apple macOS Monterey versions prior to 12.7.2.

Apple tvOS versions prior to 17.2.

Apple watchOS versions prior to 10.2.

Apple Safari versions prior to 17.2.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on October 31 sent a notice to Apple, stating that the CERT-In will investigate the matter related to the company notifying many iPhone users in India that their devices may have been targeted in a “state-sponsored” attack.