Time to update! Apple’s emergency patch fixes zero-day vulnerability in Macs, Apple Watches
It’s always good practice to update your devices as soon as an update is available. It’s one of the best ways to defend against cybercriminals. You’ll usually get some helpful new tools, too.
May’s Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft fixed 75 flaws, including three zero-days. Tap or click here for details. It’s Apple’s turn. The tech giant just pushed out an emergency update for Mac computers and Apple Watches.
Read on for details on what the critical update covers and how you can get it.
Here’s the backstory
Early last month, Apple rushed out an emergency patch for iPhone, Mac and iPad that fixes two zero-day vulnerabilities in the respective operating systems. And now, a few days after the release of iOS 15.5, the company is urging Mac and Apple Watch users to update.
An unidentified cybersecurity researcher is responsible for the vulnerability’s discovery, tracked as CVE-2022-22675. It has become an industry practice for companies to refrain from disclosing the nature of security flaws until most users update.
What we do know about the issue is that audio and video decoding kernel extension AppleAVD is the target. In theory, hackers can exploit the out-of-bounds write issue to execute malicious code on Mac computers and Apple Watches.
What you can do about it
Apple released updates to fix the vulnerability for three operating systems, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The latter is the operating system for Apple TV streaming devices. The affected devices are:
- Macs running on the previous Big Sur operating system.
- Apple TV 4K, second-generation and HD devices.
- Apple Watch Series 3 or newer.
How to update Mac:
- Click on the Apple menu in the corner of the screen.
- Tap System Preferences.
- In the following menu, click Software Update.
- Then, click Update Now or Upgrade Now.
Use Chrome for Android? Update now to patch zero-day flaw
Chrome is the most popular browser on the web by a huge margin, so it should come as no surprise that hackers are trying to crack it again.
They’re relying on a zero-day flaw found in the desktop and Android versions of Chrome this time. This comes just days after Google’s Project Zero team discovered a critical flaw in the browser’s sandbox mode. Tap or click here to see how to patch that bug.
Update now! Windows 10 patch fixes critical issue
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