Apple Releases iOS 12.5.5 Update for Older iPhones With Fix for Zero-Day Exploit

Thursday September 23, 2021 9:59 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today released an iOS 12.5.5 update for older iPhones and iPads that are not able to run the current version of iOS, iOS 15.

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The update can be downloaded over-the-air by going to the Settings app, tapping on "General," and selecting the "Software Update" option.

There's no word yet on what's included in the iOS 12.5.5 update, but according to Apple's release notes, it is a security update that addresses vulnerabilities with CoreGraphics, WebKit, and XNU. Apple says that it has received reports suggesting these exploits were used in the wild, so iOS device users still running iOS 12 should update immediately.

According to Bleeping Computer, at least one of the bugs was likely used to deploy NSO Pegasus spyware on hacked devices.

Devices unable to be updated past iOS 12 include the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPod touch 6, original iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and ‌iPad mini‌ 3.

Update: Apple has also released a new 2021-006 Security Update for machines running macOS Catalina.

Top Rated Comments

Caliber26

59 months ago

Android could never.

Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ouimetnick

59 months ago

Still supporting a 2013 iPhone 5S… an EIGHT YEAR OLD DEVICE. Get on that level Google!

Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)

redheeler

59 months ago

It's not meant to be 3 years it's meant to be the previous 3 releases, which should be Big Sur, Catalina and Mojave, but for whatever reason in the latest round of security updates, only Catalina got a security update (plus Big Sur 11.6).

I do wish they'd continue updating 10.13 - plenty of Macs were marooned on High Sierra. Microsoft gives security updates to much older machines through Windows 10!

Apple's strategies with iOS and MacOS are in such contrast to each other. On the Mac side the support cutoffs have become completely arbitrary and really only explainable by planned obsolescence / cost reasoning. On the iPhone side someone actually seems to care about supporting older devices.

iOS and MacOS support spans have almost converged, it seems like pretty soon iPhones will be supported for longer than Macs which cost twice as much or more.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)