Apple users urged to update their phones after major security breach
The US Tech giant said that it is aware of the report and that the issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack, which was targeting specific individuals.
All iPhone and iPad users worldwide have been advised to update their devices immediately after a major security breach.
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“A physical attack may disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device,” Apple said in a statement released on Monday.
The US tech giant said that it is aware of the report and that the issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack, which was targeting specific individuals.
This meant that the hackers could get ‘full admin access to the device, which would impersonate the device’s owner and any apps and software they run in their name.
The flaw was first spotted by Bill Marczak, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab.
Apple released patches, data that is intended to be used to modify an existing software resource such as a program or a file, often to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities to prevent it.
The patches fixed the flaw in USB Restricted Mode, a feature Apple introduced in 2018 that disables the Lightning or USB ports on iPhones and iPads if they are locked for more than an hour.
Apple locks the ports to prevent attacks that involve connecting a cable to the ports. Once a user authenticates and unlocks a device, the ports come back to life.
By updating the iPhones and iPads, Apple says users will ensure that cybercriminals are not able to use any of the flaws highlighted above against their devices.
Apple said that the updates are available for 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.
It said that other updates will be released later to secure their devices.
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