On Good Friday and Easter Monday of 2023, Apple released emergency updates for Macs, iPhones and iPads to patch cybersecurity vulnerabilities on those devices. These updates are considered ’emergency’ because Apple observed that hackers are exploiting those vulnerabilities in the wild.
How bad are these vulnerabilities?
In essence, if you do not update, your devices can be compromised by hackers just by viewing a malicious webpage in Safari. For iOS/iPadOS, all web-browsers (e.g. Chrome, Edge, Firefox) are derivatives of Safari. So, all web-browsers are vulnerable.
Which devices are affected?
All Apple devices need to be updated to the following versions:
- iOS/iPadOS: 16.4.1 or 15.7.5
- macOS: 13.3.1 or 12.6.5 or 11.7.6
- Safari 16.4.1 (for devices running macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey)
How do I update?
- For iPhones and iPads, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
- For Macs running macOS Ventura, go to System Settings > General > Software Update.
- For Macs running macOS Big Sur/Monterey, go to System Preferences > Software Update.