Overnight Apple has released the latest update to their mobile OS, with iOS 11.2.2 delivering a security update that patches the Spectre security vulnerabilities. This isn’t something you need to debate about, get the update.
For those technically minded, you can review the details of the security flaw that effects almost all modern processors, over at Google’s Project Zero blog. For those less interested in the detail and simply need to understand the urgency, basically this security flaw, has the potential to leak secure data. So far, no public exploit is known, but now the security researchers have gone public with the flaw, it likely won’t be long until we do. You simple and best prevention is to do updates as the various hardware and software device vendors release updates.
The other side of the recent security discovery was Meltdown which was addressed in the iOS 11.2 update. Apple’s security updates page also lists 2 other releases for today, including patches for Safari (11.0.2) and macOS High Sierra (10.13.2).
macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Supplemental Update | macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 | 08 Jan 2018 |
Safari 11.0.2 (v. 11604.4.7.1.6 & 12604.4.7.1.6) |
OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and macOS Sierra 10.12.6 | 08 Jan 2018 |
iOS 11.2.2 | iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation | 08 Jan 2018 |