Apple issues critical updates for iPhones, iPads and Macs after the discovery of a serious security flaw

Apple has issued a warning about a security flaw that could be used to take full control of iPhones, iPads and Macs. The company says that the vulnerability "may have been actively exploited" and has issued a slew of updates to patch the problem.

Going some way to prove that it is not just Windows that suffers serious security issues, this vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2022-32893. The potential impact of the flaw is so wide because it stems from a bug in Safari’s WebKit rendering engine.

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Apple is giving away little about the nature of the vulnerability. In releasing updates, the company simply says of the patches that "an out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved bounds checking".

Writing about the potential impact of the security flaw, Apple says:

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.

The patch is included as part of macOS Monterey 12.5.1, iOS 15.6.1, and iPadOS 15.6.1, and users are advised to update their devices as soon as possible.

Image credit: Alberto Garcia Guillen / Shutterstock