The central government on Thursday issued an advisory to users of Apple products to update their devices to the latest version of the respective operating system to quickly plug security vulnerabilities.
In the note, issued by
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Apple products like iPhone, MacBook, Watch, iPad and Apple TV, that are running older OS versions are in danger of getting infected by malware or being hacked by bad actors. “Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Apple products which could be exploited by an attacker to gain elevated privileges, bypass security restriction, execute arbitrary code and disclose sensitive information on the targeted system,” said CERT-In in its advisory.
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The vulnerabilities arise as a result of improper memory handling, state management, input validation, checks, handling of file metadata, state handling, bounds checking, locking, sandbox restrictions, access restrictions, permissions logic, execution of JavaScript in a scripting dictionary and Bluetooth misconfiguration.
“An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by convincing the user to run a maliciously crafted application. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to bypass security restriction,” warned CERT-In.
Over the past year, Apple has pushed out several emergency software updates to plug exploits and weaknesses in its operating systems. The most prominent ones have been in response to the Pegasus spyware, made by the Israeli NSO Group. Apple routinely asks its customers to keep their devices updated to the latest firmware and software applicable to the device so that they may be protected against any known vulnerabilities and exploits. Apple has recently also filed a lawsuit against NSO Group for developing the Pegasus spyware to exploit the vulnerabilities. According to Apple's official notes, the latest software versions are iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, macOS 12.1, tvOS 15.2 and watchOS 8.3. CERT-In, in its advisory, has recommended that the devices concerned be updated to these versions.
(Edited by : Vijay Anand)
First Published: Dec 16, 2021 6:49 PM IST
