Apple patches iOS 12 after bugs are exploited

Apple has released a set of out-of-band patches for its older but currently supported iOS 12 mobile operating system, to address bugs which the company says may have been actively exploited.

Attackers can use the vulnerabilities to cause memory corruption with maliciously crafted web content, and to take advantage of a use-after-free bug.

This allows attackers to run arbitrary code on users' devices.

No details were provided by Apple around when and against whom the vulnerabilities were used.

The vulnerabilities indexed as CVE-2021-30761 and CVE-2021-30762 were both attributed to an anonymous security researcher.

Apple also released a patch in iOS 12.5.4 that handles a memory corruption issue in code used to process digital certificates using the Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) interface description language.

The bug, CVE-2021-30737, could be used to run arbitrary code on users' devices and was fixed in iOS and iPadOS 14.6 and macOS Big Sur 11.4 on May 25 this year prior to the release of today's patch for iOS 12.