While iOS 15.3 and iPadOS 15.3 remain in beta testing, Apple is pushing in a minor update for its iPhones and tablets. iOS 15.2.1 and iPadOS 15.2.1 have been available for download since Wednesday evening and fix several bugs and close at least one security hole.
In its, as usual, brief package insert, Apple names two fixed bugs. The messaging app iMessage, which contains a photo sent via iCloud link, may not download it – both on the iPhone and on the iPad. Also fixed on iPhones only is a bug related to iPhone vehicle integration CarPlay that causes some third-party apps to stop responding to inputs.
Whether there are any other changes in the update package, which was around 800 MB on an iPhone 13 Pro Max, remains Apple’s secret. The group only gives out one more piece of information: a potential problematic gap in the home app or the control center will be closed. With this it was possible to paralyze entire devices – iPads like iPhones – if you gave a HomeKit device a very long name. The bug potentially spreads like a worm through the hardware of an Apple ID because HomeKit names are synchronized with each other.
Utensils via the HomeKit plate
There do not seem to have been any attacks in the wild via the relatively complex exploitable vulnerability; this would have been extremely problematic, because devices could really be flattened. A security researcher made the problem public after Apple had not responded with an update for weeks. Since the bug also hit the media afterwards, the iPhone maker apparently sped up work on its fix. Accordingly, users should install the update as soon as possible.
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