Get up from bed and instantly update your iPhone. Apple has released its iOS 14.4 update with fixes for three critical security holes that may be exploited right now.
The iPhone manufacturer didn’t list too many details about the errors, apart from the fact that they “could have been actively exploited. “A vulnerability affects the kernel, in which an attacker could increase his or her authority level (e.g. become an administrator) and could seriously damage your device or steal your data.
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The other two anomalies are related to Apple’s WebKit rendering engine, which Safari supports. They allow attackers to execute arbitrary code that could be sniffed at you. We don’t know if this can be done remotely or if the attacker would need physical access to the device.
In time, we may learn more about these errors, but it is important that you update your iPhone to iOS 14.4 now.
To do this, go to Settings> General> Software Update and download the patch.
In 2019, Google’s Project Zero team announced that targeted malware was exploiting bugs on the iPhone to steal data for two years before fixing them. Typically, companies like Apple do not disclose details of bugs under attack. However, given the scale of the impact on iPhone owners, it had to at least ask them to update their devices this time around.
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Published on January 27, 2021 – 05:13 UTC
