Apple releases iOS 10.3.1 security update for iPhone/iPad

Apple released the 10.3.1 security update yesterday — the first maintenance update to the latest iOS 10.3 mobile operating system series, for all supported iPhone and iPad devices.

The iOS 10.3.1 point release is here to address a Wi-Fi issue that made devices running iOS 10.3 vulnerable to attacks where a nearby hacker could run arbitrary code on the Wi-Fi chip. In the security notice, Apple explains the bug as a stack buffer overflow, which the company addressed by improving the input validation.

The vulnerability (CVE-2017-6975) was discovered by Gal Beniamini of Google Project Zero, and this issue seems to affect iPhone 5 and later, iPad 4^th generation and later, as well as iPod touch 6^th generation and later devices running on the iOS 10.3 operating system.

Apple recommends all users to install the iOS 10.3.1 security update update as soon as possible. To update your device, go to Settings>General>Software Update — If you are on iOS 10.3 then you should be able to see the new update. Press “Download and Install” button to install it.

In the meantime, Apple’s iOS developers are working towards creating a second point release of iOS 10.3 which is called the 10.3.2 for which developers already received the first Beta milestone last week. A second beta release is expected this week for developers and public beta testers alike.