iPhones in danger: Apple steps in immediately and publishes an update

Somewhat surprisingly, Apple released another update for iOS 14 with iOS 14.8 and iPadOS 14.8. The update for iPhone and iPad should be installed as soon as possible, the reason is likely to worry users.

This was a bit unexpected now, shortly before the release of iOS 15, i OS 14.8 and iPadOS 14.8 are again an update for the previous operating system of iPhones and iPads . There is a good reason for the hasty publication, as Apple only had a week to fix an extremely critical security hole (source: The New York Times).

iPhones at risk: new gateway for Pegasus

Researchers from the organization "Citizen Lab" discovered the new vulnerability, according to their own statements, when they examined a cell phone by a Saudi Arabian activist. The loophole was exploited by the ominous spy software Pegasus from the Israeli company NSO. The vulnerability is said to have been exploited undetected since February 2021 in order to carry out appropriate attacks on users. The researchers informed Apple of their findings last week (September 7th), they reacted immediately and were now able to publish the important update for iPhone and iPad very quickly.

In the "package insert", Apple is a little more specific and explicitly describes the gateway: "The processing of a maliciously created PDF file can lead to the execution of arbitrary code."

Apple will soon release the next major update with iOS 15. In the video we see one of the many new features:

What makes the gap so dangerous?

Once the iPhone is "infected", the user basically surrenders the keys . John-Scott Railton of Citizen Lab puts it this way: "This spyware can do anything an iPhone user can do on his device and more." Telephone calls and e-mails and can even activate the camera and microphone unobserved - the iPhone becomes a bug.

In this context, so-called "zero-day exploits" are usually used. This is understood to mean security gaps that neither the manufacturer (in this case Apple) nor the public knows about . These remain "under the roof" as long as possible and are actively used by secret services for surveillance purposes. As soon as these become known, they will also be closed. However, there is then a high probability that a new access will haunt around - an eternal cat-and-mouse game.