Apple has recently launched the iPhone 13 and a few more devices hours ago and just before the launch, they released a new iOS update for the existing users. This major update was specifically meant to deal with a critical vulnerability that was exploited by Israel’s NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. Last week, the Citizen lab informed Apple about a vulnerability in the iMessage that targets the image rendering library. It allowed users to hack the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch devices.
The hackers just had to send a message through iMessage and they could have hacked the device from Apple easily. Also, the users will never know about it as it did not require any kind of user confirmation for the action. The vulnerability was initially found in the jailbroken iPhone of a Saudi Arabian activist, which is a FORCEDENTRY vulnerability active since February 2021. However, Apple released the patch just after a week after knowing about the vulnerability.
The vulnerability has been in the news since July where it was informed that it allowed the hackers to have full control over the user device. Later it was found that more than 50,000 users were already affected by this vulnerability. If you have not yet updated your Apple device, it is suggested that it should be done right now as it will safeguard the device against any such threats. Apple has also confirmed that it will add new spyware barriers for these threats in the coming days with the launch if iOS 15