The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has issued a high-severity alert for Apple device owners in the country. The alert warns of multiple security flaws affecting several Apple products including iPhones, iPads and Mac computers and urges users to immediately update their devices to the latest software versions.
Vulnerabilities found in multiple Apple platforms
According to CERT-In, the identified vulnerabilities affect users running iOS versions prior to 18.6, iPadOS versions prior to 17.9.9 and 18.6, macOS Sequoia versions prior to 15.6, macOS Sonoma versions prior to 14.7.7, macOS Ventura versions prior to 13.7.7, watchOS versions prior to 11.6, tvOS versions prior to 18.6 and visionOS versions prior to 2.6. These flaws could be exploited by attackers to compromise the security of the device.
Risks posed by security flaws
The government advisory states that these vulnerabilities arise from issues such as type confusion, use-after-free errors, out-of-bounds memory access, integer overflow, buffer overflow, and race conditions. If not patched, these vulnerabilities could allow cybercriminals to execute malicious code, bypass security measures, steal sensitive information, or disrupt device functionality through denial-of-service attacks.
Immediate update recommended to avoid exploitation
CERT-In warns that attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities by sending specially crafted requests to targeted devices. Such attacks can result in critical data loss, theft of personal information, and reduced device performance. Users are advised to install the latest available updates released by Apple, which contain fixes for these vulnerabilities. Apple usually discloses such security flaws only after releasing the corresponding patches, making timely updates important.
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