Apple fixes serious Mac and iPhone security flaws

On Tuesday, Apple released a bunch of security fixes, and we suggest you take them seriously.

The company released updates for macOS Sequoia, Ventura, and Sonoma. Fixes have also been released for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS. Apple has also released a different fix for its Safari browser.

The fix usually revolves around two vulnerabilities: one in JavaScriptCore and one in WebKit. Both vulnerabilities allowed a hacker to maliciously manipulate web content that could lead to arbitrary code execution. This type of vulnerability is as serious as it gets; if a hacker can run any program on your system, they can control or infect it with a virus.

The update is available for Mac devices running one of the three affected operating systems, as well as iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later , iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later.

Apple had no prior knowledge of these bugs; the company credits the discovery of these problems to Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google’s Threat Analysis Group.

Apple says it is aware of reports that both of these problems have been widely exploited by hackers, although only on Intel-based Mac systems. However, if your device has not automatically updated to the latest version, we suggest you update as soon as possible.