Yesterday (March 14), Apple released security fixes for almost everything it does, so whether you have an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, or even iTunes for Windows, it’s time to update . First, good news: none of the 10 update cases appear to include zero-strength weaknesses. In other words, hackers have not exploited any of these flaws in the wild – at least not yet. It will probably just a few days until that happens, so you will want to upgrade your iDevices right now.
The bundle update for iOS and iPad OS contains fixes for 39 different security flaws and bumps up version numbers for both OS to 15.4. We have also got a preview of the latest versions of iOS 15.4. Software updates (found in System Preferences in the latest version of macOS) will install all the required Mac updates. On iPhone or iPad, go to Settings> General> Software Update. To update Apple Watch, make sure your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi, then go to Apple Watch> My Watch> General> Software Update on your iPhone. To update Apple TV, go to Settings> Settings> Software Updates> Software Updates.
Apple says that iTunes for Windows will automatically update itself if you download an application from the Microsoft Store, or if you have automated updates working within the application. Otherwise, open the iTunes application and go to Help> Check for Updates. Various flaws allow malicious websites, images or PDFs to lead to the execution of remote control code, website scripts (both methods of remote hacking) or the leak of suspicious information, which of course would ASAP have it is fixed. Others let the applications already installed on the iPhone or iPad do more than they should, or let someone on the local network do so.
Updates for some of the same web-based flaws are included in the update packages for macOS Monterey, Big Sur and Catalina, which have patches 60, 22, and 18, respectively. An error that seems to be unique to Monterey allows malicious applications to gain root privileges, a level of system control that does not even allow macOS users to have. That is about a serious flaw as you can get.
Other update packs are available for Apple TV, Apple Watch, iTunes for Windows, GarageBand, Logic Pro X and XCode. iTunes one fixes four flaws related to handling “malicious images” or web content, all of which are shared with iOS / iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS and macOS Monterey.
