Apple has begun releasing an update to a new version for its phones and tablets, iOS and iPadOS at number 15.2.1, designed to fix a security bug discovered in its smart home service, HomeKit.
Keep in mind that the malfunction may cause the iPhone to get stuck and restart again and again permanently. Moreover, even if the user succeeds in reinstalling the operating system, the glitch will recur immediately after connecting to the iCloud account and resynchronizing the existing smart accessories in the house.
Root of the fault, Reported By security researcher Trevor Spinolas, Homekit’s inability to handle smart home accessories with a particularly long name of about 500,000 characters. It certainly does not seem likely that a real commercial product would be defined by such a long name, but a potential attacker might create such a listing and then share it with users he is interested in harming. It is enough for those users to accept the invitation and join the “home” created for them in order to disable the device.
Spiniolas said he reported the glitch to Apple as early as August last year, and according to the report it was supposed to fix the problem in previous months and not wait until now. He added that in his opinion, Apple’s handling of the problem was not good enough, as it posed a real risk to the device’s operation. The researcher noted that he was able to locate the bug in iOS 14.7 as well, and in his estimation, it appears in all versions of the previous generation of Apple’s phone operating system, as well as that of the company’s tablets. Hence whoever did not upgrade – now is a great time to do so.
The update also includes a fix related to messages that do not load images sent as a link in iCloud Link, as well as a glitch of third-party apps that do not respond in CarPlay.