Heads up, Apple users! emergency update iOS 15.0.2 is out to fix a vulnerability that Apple confirmed as a zero-day.
iOS 15.0.2 Update Patched Zero-Day Vulnerability
Apple has recently released iOS 15.0.2 and iPadOS 15.0.2 for all compatible iPhones and iPads, addressing a zero-day vulnerability.
As elaborated in its advisory, the vulnerability, CVE-2021-30883, tipped by an anonymous researcher, affects most latest Apple devices. The bug typically affects the system kernel and could allow arbitrary code execution attacks. Describing the vulnerability, Apple stated in the advisory,
An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
Apple patched this “memory corruption issue” by improving memory handling and released the fix with emergency updates. The latest versions are available for iPhone 6 and later, all iPad Pro models, iPad 5th gen. and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad mini 4 and later, and iPod touch 7th gen.
For now, Apple hasn’t shared details about the vulnerability to minimize possible exploits in the wild and give the users more time to update their devices.
Nonetheless, security researcher Saar Amar has elaborated on the bug in a recent blog post. Amar has also shared PoC exploit deduced after reverse-engineering the patch.
According to the researcher, this vulnerability potentially triggers jailbreaking and works even for the devices running the latest iOS 15. Specifically, Amar tested the exploit against iOS 14.7.1 to 15.0.1 and found it working for all versions. While he suspects that the bug might exist in the older versions, he didn’t test them.
Given this severity, iPhone and iPad users need to update their devices at the earliest opportunity to prevent potential attacks.
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