Apple releases updates to fix Spectre vulnerability

On Monday the 8th of January 2018 Apple released macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Supplemental Update.

You may have heard about “Spectre” & “Meltdown” in the news in the last week of 2017 these are hardware-based exploits that exploit the way CPU’s process data, this could allow a hacker to gain access to your sensitive data.

Meltdown was addressed in the macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 update in December 2017, for Spectre there is no hardware fix, instead Apple is addressing the vulnerability using Safari.

When you update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Supplemental Update this will also update Safari to version 11.0.2 (13604.4.7.1.6) or version 11.0.2 (13604.4.7.10.6), again these are supplemental updates so you have to check the version number:

• Open Safari.
• Choose Safari > About Safari.

We can see above Safari has not been updated although the version number 11.0.2 could make us think it has.

Apple has also released an update for Safari running on macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208403

How to update your Mac

To update to the latest versions of Safari and OS X in all instances open the App Store on your Mac and got to the “Updates” Tab.

Then Click Update next to the updates you want to apply or update all.

How to update your iOS device (iPhone/iPad)

On Tuesday the 9th of January 2018 Apple released iOS 11.2.2 which fixes the Spectre Vulnerability for iOS 11.

To install the update, go to:

• Settings > General > Software Update
• Then tap Download and install