Which the chatter nowadays is all about the latest versions of the iPhone and iOS, there are a ton of older devices still out there. If you are using an older device—such as an iPhone 6 or a first-gen iPad Air—you should know that Apple on Thursday released iOS 12.5.5, an update for iPhones and iPads with critical security patches.
The patches are for CoreGraphics, WebKit, and XNU. As previously reported in the iOS 14.8 update, at least one of the security patches pertain to the Pegasus spyware that was uncovered on iPhones. Here are the details (including what devices the update is for) in the release notes:
CoreGraphic
Available for: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation)
Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted PDF may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
Description: An integer overflow was addressed with improved input validation.
CVE-2021-30860: The Citizen Lab
WebKit
Available for: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation)
Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.
CVE-2021-30858: an anonymous researcher
XNU
Available for: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation)
Impact: A malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of reports that an exploit for this issue exists in the wild.
Description: A type confusion issue was addressed with improved state handling.
CVE-2021-30869: Erye Hernandez of Google Threat Analysis Group, Clément Lecigne of Google Threat Analysis Group, and Ian Beer of Google Project Zero
To install the update, to the Settings app, tap on General, then tap Software Update.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor
Roman has covered technology since the early 1990s. His career started at MacUser, and he's worked for MacAddict, Mac|Life, and TechTV.