- Apple publishes the update of iOS and iPados devices with safety patch
- He claims that the update corrects a bug deactivating the limited USB mode
- The bug was mistreated in the wild, says Apple
Apple has published a new patch for iOS and iPados devices to repair a recently discovered flaw – which would normally be nothing extraordinary, that Apple had not described the corrected vulnerability as dramatically as it did.
In a security notice, the company said it published iOS 18.3.1 and iPados 18.3.1 to contact the CVE-2025-24200, a deflicting defect of its iPhones and iPads which could allow an actor Malveillant to lead a “physical attack” that deactivates the limited USB mode on a locked device.
Restricted USB mode is a security functionality that prevents data transfer via the Lightning (or USB-C) port when the device is locked for more than an hour. This helps protect against hacking tools that try to get around passing codes or extract data via USB connections.
Break into locked iPhones
Apple said it solved the problem with an improvement in state management, but added: “Apple is aware of a report that this problem may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals. “”
The wording here, although not specific, suggests that vulnerability could have been used by the police and other agencies sponsored by the State to unlock the iphones of individuals.
Apple has a long history of conflict with the American government. While the latter demanded, on a few occasions, that Apple gave access to the seized iphones of alleged terrorists and other criminals, Apple vehemently refused, arguing that such a decision would undermine the intimacy of all users and would thus ruin the brand itself.
Consequently, the American government hired third -party cybersecurity agencies which claimed to have working methods to enter the locked iPhones. As Techcrunch According to Reported, Amnesty International has documented a series of attacks by the Serbian authorities where they used Cellebrité, an Israeli digital intelligence company known for its medico-legal tools that have been used to extract data from locked and encrypted smartphones, to unlock The telephones of activists and journalists in the Smart Country, then install malware on them.
Via Techcrunch
