Apple Warns of Active iPhone Web Attacks, Urges Users to Update iOS Immediately

Apple is urging iPhone users to update their software immediately following the discovery of active web-based attacks targeting older versions of iOS. The company published a new support document today outlining the threat, warning that users who visit compromised websites or click malicious links on outdated firmware may have their data put at risk.



According to the advisory, security researchers identified the exploits being used in the wild and reported them to Apple. The company says it investigated the issues as they were discovered and released software updates as quickly as possible to address the vulnerabilities and disrupt the attacks.


Devices running the latest versions of iOS 15 through iOS 26 are already protected from these exploits. Apple notes that users who have kept their software up to date were not at risk from the reported attacks.

For older hardware, Apple released updates for iOS 15 and iOS 16 on March 11 to extend protections to devices that cannot run the latest version of iOS. The company highlighted these recent security updates for older devices.

Users still running iOS 13 or iOS 14 must update to iOS 15 to receive these protections. Apple says affected devices will receive an alert prompting them to install a Critical Security Update in the coming days.

Apple is also addressing the issue at the browser level. Safari's Safe Browsing feature, enabled by default, blocks the malicious URL domains identified in these attacks.


For those unable to update immediately, Apple says enabling Lockdown Mode can protect against these specific exploits even on out-of-date software. However, users are still advised to update to the latest version of iOS as soon as possible.