Apple Fixes Serious Security Vulnerabilities on the macOS and iOS Platforms

Apple just dropped a whole batch of security patches on Monday — and not a moment too soon, honestly. They’re fixing some gnarly bugs across macOS, iPhone, iPad... the whole Apple universe. We’re talking about vulnerabilities so bad you could get hacked just by opening some sketchy image or video. Or even just clicking on the wrong website. Fun times, right?

Anyway, iOS 18.5 is out now (plus all the matching iPadOS stuff), and it’s plugging some pretty scary holes in AppleJPEG and CoreMedia. According to the crew in Cupertino, you could get pwned by a doctored media file. Hackers could run whatever they want on your phone using the privileges of whatever app you happened to open their “special” file in. Sweet dreams!

If that wasn’t enough, there’s a pile of file-parsing bugs in CoreAudio, CoreGraphics, and ImageIO. Open the wrong file? Bang, your app crashes or spits out your secret stuff. Not ideal.

WebKit was another mess — at least nine different flaws patched. Some looked serious enough that just visiting a bad website could crash Safari, or worse, let someone run their junk on your device. Safari’s already having enough of an identity crisis; it doesn’t need this.

Here’s a spicy one: there was even a FaceTime mute-button bug, so your mic might’ve kept sending audio even after you hit mute. So, that awkward silence you thought you were having? Yeah, maybe not so silent.

iOS 18.5 also beefs up the kernel, plugging a couple of memory-screwy issues. And there’s a libexpat fix (don’t worry what that is, just know it’s used all over the internet and had a hole).

A couple more for the “yikes” pile: A Baseband issue that could let hackers on privileged networks snoop on iPhone 16e traffic, a privilege escalation thing in mDNSResponder, Notes leaking data even when your screen’s locked, and additional fixes for FrontBoard, iCloud Document Sharing, and Mail Addressing. It’s a security buffet.

Oh, and before you freak out: Apple says none of these bugs have been spotted in the wild. (Yet. But, you know, better safe than sorry.)

In case you’re wondering if your gear is eligible: iOS 18.5 runs on iPhone XS and later. iPadOS covers iPad Pro (2018+), iPad Air 3, iPad 7, iPad mini 5, and newer. Unless you’re still rocking something from the dinosaur era, you’re probably covered.

And hey, Mac nerds, you got love too. Big updates for macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura — plus WatchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. The full Apple patch party. Update your stuff before some script kiddie does it for you.