Apple has issued iOS 15.6, fixing a whopping 39 security vulnerabilities, some of which are serious. It’s been a while since the last iPhone security update—iOS 15.5 was released two months ago—making it important that you apply iOS 15.6 as soon as you can.
Among the issues patched in iOS 15.6 are a flaw in Apple File System (APFS) tracked as CVE-2022-32832, which could allow an app to execute code with kernel privileges, according to Apple’s support page.
Another flaw fixed in iOS 15.6 is an issue in AppleAVD that could allow a remote attacker to cause kernel code execution. The iOS 15.6 iPhone upgrade also patches vulnerabilities in ImageIO, GPU Drivers, IOMobileFrameBuffer, Kernel and WebKit.
Sponsored
Apple declines to give much information in its security update notes, to allow as many people as possible to update their iPhones before attackers can get hold of the details. Therefore, iOS 15.6 doesn’t provide much information about the fixes, but thankfully, none of them have been exploited—in other words, used in real-life attacks on iPhones.
iOS 15.6—Why you should update your iPhone now
Apple watchers had been looking out for iOS 15.6 this week, but the iPhone maker often releases updates on a Monday or Tuesday, so some people had thought the upgrade would be pushed to next week.
Not so—but it’s still a good idea to update your iPhone to iOS 15.6 as soon as possible. As iOS 16 nears, iPhone updates are for bug fixes and your security, making upgrading a no-brainer.
Bug fixes in iOS 15.6 include an issue where Settings continued to display that the device storage is full even if it isn’t, as well as an issue in Safari where a tab may revert back to a previous page.
The next big iOS features update, iOS 16 is due to launch this Fall. In the meantime, you can update your iPhone by going to your Settings > General > Software Update and downloading and installing iOS 15.6. That’ll ensure your iPhone is as secure as possible before the next major features upgrade arrives.