Indian government issues high-risk warning to Apple users still on old software
India Today
Apple recently rolled out the macOS Monterey 12.4 update, as a part of which the Safari browser was updated with over 50 security fixes.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s cyber-security office has a warning for Apple users. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a high-risk warning for Mac users who are still using the old software. If your Safari browser is running a version prior to 15.4, CERT-In has immediately urged you to update your device. The warning states that previous Safari versions have several vulnerabilities that may have been exploited by hackers in an attempt to hijack your Mac.
Apple recently rolled out the macOS Monterey 12.4 update, as a part of which the Safari browser was updated with over 50 security fixes. Some of the flaws, the fixes for which have been released, could allow hackers to install malicious apps on your devices. These apps could execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. In other words, hackers could gain root-level access to your Mac device if they manage to exploit the said vulnerabilities. CERT-In’s warning cites these vulnerabilities that are present on previous macOS versions and if your Mac is running one of them, it might be at risk.
According to the advisory by the government body, as reported by the Times of India, “these vulnerabilities exist in Apple Safari for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina due to memory corruption and use-after-free within the WebKit component. A remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by persuading a victim to visit maliciously crafted web content.”
Earlier this week, Apple rolled out a fresh batch of software updates for the iPhone and Mac devices. For the iPhone and iPad, it rolled out iOS 15.5. For Mac, Apple released the macOS Monterey 12.4 update. While these updates do not bring many consumer-facing updates, they carry many under-the-hood improvements, as well as security fixes. Over 30 flaws on the iPhone and iPad and over 50 flaws in macOS were addressed in these updates. And these flaws are pretty serious because Apple did not just release them for the latest iOS and macOS versions but also for older supported versions.
Apart from the security updates, the new software updates bring certain new features. The Apple Wallet has gained support for the Apple Cash card, allowing users to request or send money directly to other eligible users. The Podcasts app now lets users set a limit for the number of episodes that will be stored on local storage while the older ones will be deleted.
