For iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation), Apple on Thursday released iOS 12.5.5 which “provides important security updates and is recommended for all users.”
About the security content of iOS 12.5.5:
CoreGraphics
• Available for: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation)
• Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted PDF may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
• Description: An integer overflow was addressed with improved input validation.
CVE-2021-30860: The Citizen Lab
WebKit
• Available for: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation)
• Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
• Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.
CVE-2021-30858: an anonymous researcher
XNU
• Available for: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation)
• Impact: A malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of reports that an exploit for this issue exists in the wild.
• Description: A type confusion issue was addressed with improved state handling.
CVE-2021-30869: Erye Hernandez of Google Threat Analysis Group, Clément Lecigne of Google Threat Analysis Group, and Ian Beer of Google Project Zero
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve updated an iPad Air to iOS 12.5.5 and, while we’d be hard-pressed to call it snappy, we’ve experienced no issues after updating.
Wow 😎 I’m still using my iPhone 5S as an iPod touch at home. Thanks Apple, for keeping older devices and computers useful for a LONG time. Even my ancient classic iPods still sync with MacOS (using Finder now instead of iTunes).