Apple warns of security flaw for iPhones, iPads and Macs

HIGHLIGHTS :

• Apple disclosed serious security vulnerabilities for iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
• NSO Group has been blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department.
• Security researcher Will Strafach said he had seen no technical analysis of the vulnerabilities

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Apple disclosed serious security vulnerabilities for iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Apple disclosed serious security vulnerabilities for iPhones, iPads, and Macs that could potentially allow attackers to take complete control of these devices.

Apple released two security reports about the issue on Wednesday, although they didn’t receive wide attention outside of tech publications.

Apple’s explanation of the vulnerability means a hacker could get “full admin access” to the device. That would allow intruders to impersonate the device’s owner and subsequently run any software in their name, said Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security.

NSO Group has been blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department.

Security experts have advised users to update affected devices – the iPhone6S and later models; several models of the iPad, including the 5th generation and later, all iPad Pro models and the iPad Air 2; and Mac computers running MacOS Monterey. The flaw also affects some iPod models.

Apple did not say in the reports how, where, or by whom the vulnerabilities were discovered. In all cases, it cited an anonymous researcher.

Commercial spyware companies such as Israel’s NSO Group are known for identifying and taking advantage of such flaws, exploiting them in malware that surreptitiously infects targets’ smartphones, siphons their contents, and surveils the targets in real-time.

Security researcher Will Strafach said he had seen no technical analysis of the vulnerabilities

NSO Group has been blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department. Its spyware is known to have been used in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America against journalists, dissidents, and human rights activists.

The vulnerability also extends to Mac computers running the company’s Monterey OS as well as Apple’s Safari browser on its Big Sur and Catalina operating systems, the company said in a subsequent update.

Security researcher Will Strafach said he had seen no technical analysis of the vulnerabilities that Apple has just patched. The company has previously acknowledged similarly serious flaws and, on what Strafach estimated to be perhaps a dozen occasions, has noted that it was aware of reports that such security holes had been exploited.

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Megha Gupta

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