Indian govt issues high security warning for iPhone, MacBook users: What you need to do

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the cybersecurity watchdog under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has sent out a risk alert to Apple users to warn them about the multiple vulnerabilities in the Cupertino-based tech giant's products that could allow an attacker to access their sensitive information.

The vulnerability affects several Apple products, including iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Apple TVs and even Vision Pro. The warning from CERT-In suggests that the threat could be primarily targeted at organisations and individuals that are tied into the Apple ecosystem and own multiple products from the company.

The advisory states that if no action is taken, there is a high risk of “unauthorized access, data theft or gain control of affected system” with a potential for denial of service and data manipulation.

What's the High-Risk warning about?

In an advisory dated 4th April, CERT-In states, “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, data manipulation and perform spoofing attacks on the targeted system.”

Which Apple Products are vulnerable?

Here's a list of Apple software affected by the vulnerability:

Apple Safari versions prior to 18.4

Apple Xcode versions prior to 16.3

Apple iOS versions prior to 18.4

Apple iPadOS versions prior to 18.4

Apple iPadOS versions prior to 17.7.6

Apple iOS versions prior to 16.7.11

Apple iPadOS versions prior to 16.7.11

Apple iOS versions prior to 15.8.4

Apple iPadOS versions prior to 15.8.4

Apple macOS Sequoia versions prior to 15.4

Apple macOS Sonoma versions prior to 14.7.5

Apple macOS Ventura versions prior to 13.7.5

Apple tvOS versions prior to 18.4

Apple visionOS versions prior to 2.4

What should you do?

CERT-In states that the appropriate patches have already been rolled out by Apple in its latest updates. Hence, it is ideal to update your Apple device to the latest software update by going into settings and clicking on Software update.