Apple has provided security updates to fix known exploits on some of its older iPhone models since the iPhone 5s.
- What’s happening? Apple has released security updates for older devices such as the 2013 iPhone 5s, including the 2014 iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
- Why care? Providing security patches for a phone older than 9 years is unheard of in the mobile industry, even by Apple standards.
- What to do? Updates will be automatically installed overnight if you have automatic updates enabled. Otherwise, open Settings → General → Software Update to manually install any pending updates.
iOS 12.5.7 brings critical security patch for iPhone 5s
Older iPhones don’t support new features brought about by iOS software updates, but Apple’s penchant for supporting devices with security patches showed up again with the January 24 release of iOS 12.5.7.
Available for iPhone 5s (2013) and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (2014). iOS 12.5.7 is also available for the original iPad Air (2013), iPad mini 2 (2013), iPad mini 3 (2014), and 6th generation iPod touch (2015).
Most of these devices are on Apple’s vintage list. “Products are considered vintage if Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 years ago and less than 7 years ago,”an Apple support document explains.
iOS 12.5.7 security content focuses on a single issue with WebKit, the rendering engine used by the Safari browser. This known exploit uses malicious web content to force arbitrary code execution. Apple has confirmed that it is aware of a report that this vulnerability may have been actively exploited in versions of iOS prior to iOS 15.1.
“A type confusion issue has been addressed with improved state handling,”explains the security document describing iOS 12.5.7 security content.
Apple also released iOS 15.7.3 and iPadOS 15.7.3 to iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the original iPhone SE, iPad Air 2, fourth-generation iPad mini, and seventh-generation iPod touch. The updates solve five problems security; you can find more about them in another security document.
Fixes for Older Macs Too
On the Mac side, Apple has released macOS Monterey 12.6.3 and macOS Big Sur 11.7.3 for the 2013 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. However, these updates also fix several other security issues specific to the macOS platform.
- About the security components of macOS Big Sur 11.7.3
- About the security features of macOS Monterey 12.6.3
There is also an update to Safari 16.3 that is strictly aimed at fixing WebKit exploits for all Macs compatible with macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey.