Apple Watch can put users at high risk, Indian government issues warning

Apple Watch has proven to be a life saving device and every other week we read stories about how the smartwatch from Apple saved someone through one of its features. Over the generations, Apple Watch models have got more and more health features but the wearable device can be dangerous for Indian users. The Indian government has issued a ‘high risk’ warning for Apple Watch users in India and ignoring this can land the users in some serious trouble. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under the IT Ministry has issued a high severity warning for Apple Watch users in India. The warning is specifically for users of Apple Watch with WatchOS versions prior to 9.6.

As revealed by the government warning, multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Apple watchOS which could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, bypass security restrictions, to escalate privileges, gain access to sensitive information and cause denial of service conditions on the targeted system.

These vulnerabilities exist in Apple watchOS due to improper memory handling error in Apple Neural Engine, improper restrictions logic issue in Find My feature, improper memory handling error or state management and use-after-free error in Kernel, improper validation of path handling or a logic issue in libxpc, improper check error or improper memory handling issue in WebKit.

To avoid any swindling, Apple Watch users should instantly apply appropriate patches as mentioned in Apple security advisories.