Protect Your Information: High-Risk Security Warnings by the Govt. to Apple and Samsung Device Users

To keep their devices secure against various threats and vulnerabilities, Apple, Samsung, and other smartphone manufacturers release regular updates and security patches. Despite regular updates, iOS and Android platforms are vulnerable to harmful attacks. The government has issued high-risk security warnings to Apple and Samsung device users. This week, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) identified critical vulnerabilities in Apple and Samsung equipment. The reported flaws potentially jeopardise users' sensitive information.

CERT-In detected various vulnerabilities in Apple products in a 15 December bulletin

These flaws affect the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and the Safari Web browser. According to CERT-In, high-risk vulnerabilities exist in iOS and iPadOS versions before 17.2 and 16.7.3, macOS Sonoma versions before 14.2, macOS Ventura versions before 13.6.3, macOS Monterey versions prior to 12.7.2, tvOS versions prior to 17.2, watchOS versions prior to 10.2, and Safari versions before 17.2.

"Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Apple products which could allow an attacker to access sensitive information, execute arbitrary code, bypass security restrictions, cause denial of service (DoS) conditions, bypass authentication, gain elevated privileges, and perform spoofing attacks on the targeted systems," the advisory said.

How to protect information from Hackers: Apple and Samsung

The nodal security agency, which reports to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said that two of the identified vulnerabilities, CVE-2023-42916 and CVE-2023-42917, might be exploited by malicious actors and recommended users to update to the most recent operating system fixes.

Furthermore, on 13 December, CERT-In issued a vulnerability note for Samsung products, indicating that Android versions 11, 12, 13, and 14 on Samsung devices are at high risk of threats that could allow attackers to bypass security restrictions, access sensitive user information, and run arbitrary code on the targeted system.

The vulnerabilities in Samsung devices might be used to gain access to the device's SIM PIN and transmit a broadcast with elevated privilege, among other things. To avoid falling victim to these dangers, Samsung users can install the most recent OS update and security patch on their devices.

Conclusion

CERT-In issued a warning last month about various security flaws affecting older iPhone and iPad models. CERT-In had identified security weaknesses in older versions of iOS and iPadOS in its vulnerability note CIVN-2023-0303, published earlier in October. According to the government, the vulnerabilities affected OS versions previous to iOS 16.7.1 and iPadOS 16.7.1.