Apple iPhone and iPad users under ‘high’ risk, government issues warning

Apple iPhone and Apple iPad users are under ‘high-risk’, a new advisory from the Indian government’s cybersecurity team has warned. As per a latest warning by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, multiple vulnerabilities have been detected in Apple iPhone and iPad with versions prior to iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16. Apple iPhone 8 or later can be exploited by these vulnerabilities. The list of Apple iPads under risk include all iPad Pro models, iPad Air 3rd generation or later, iPad 5th generation or later, and iPad mini 5th generation or later.

CERT-In has revealed that multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Apple iOS and iPadOS which could allow a remote attacker to gain access to sensitive information, execute arbitrary code, spoofing of the interface address or denial of service conditions on the targeted system.

Apple iPhone and iPad users should immediately install the latest available update on their smartphones to avoid any swindling. Apple rolled out iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16 for eligible iPhone and iPad users earlier this week. The updates bring in new features and UI that the company promised while showcasing the operating systems at WWDC 2022.

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CER-In has revealed that these vulnerabilities exist in Apple iOS and iPadOS due to Improper security restrictions in AppleMobileFileintegrity component; Improper bounds check in AVEVideoEncoder component; Improper validation in CFNetwork component; Improper entitlement in Core Bluetooth component; Improper memory handling in GPU Drivers component; Memory corruption issue in IOHIDFamily component; Use after free issue and Race condition issue in IOKit component; Improper memory handling and Out-of-bounds write issue in Kernel component; Use after free issue, Improper memory handling and Race condition issue in PPP component; Improper security restrictions and Improper path validation in Sandbox component; Improper UI handling, Type confusion issue and Logic issue in Webkit component; Use-after-free error in WebKit PDF component; Improper input validation in Mail component. A remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by persuading the victim to open a specially crafted file or application. 

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow the attacker to gain access to sensitive information, execute arbitrary code, spoofing of the interface address or denial of service conditions on the targeted system