Tech giant Apple has advised its users to update their iPhones, iPads, and Macs immediately to protect against recent security vulnerabilities that can allow hackers take control of their devices.
Discovered by an anonymous researcher, the security vulnerability can “execute arbitrary code,” which means the Apple device can be hacked to run whatever code the hacker wants. This was revealed in the separate announcements detailed below:
Apple says the vulnerabilities affect two different parts of the operating systems: the kernel and the WebKit. A kernel is a computer program at the core of a computer’s operating system and generally has complete control over everything in the system. It is the portion of the operating system code that is always resident in memory and facilitates interactions between hardware and software components. While the WebKit is a browser engine developed by Apple and primarily used in its Safari web browser, as well as all iOS web browsers.
Though Apple said in the releases that this exploit may have been abused on Mac and iPhone/iPad, they did not disclose how may people may have been affected.
We would however advise Apple device users to quickly update their devices
To update your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings -> General -> Software Update. To update your Mac, open System Preferences and select the Software Update preference pane