Apple Just Released iOS 18.6.2 | Here’s Why You Should Update Right Away
Toggle Dark Mode
All the attention is on iOS 26 right now, which is in the final rounds of its beta cycle and expected to be released in less than a month. However, that doesn’t mean Apple is sitting still on iOS 18. It may be last year’s news, but it’s still running on hundreds of millions of iPhones around the world.
That means that when Apple discovers a security flaw, it still needs to proactively fix it. This week, Apple has done just that with iOS 18.6.2, a minor release that fixes a major bug.
As with most “sub-point” releases, this one doesn’t include any changes that you’ll notice, but it does protect you from a security vulnerability that could allow a hacker to mess with your iPhone via something as seemingly innocuous as looking at a picture on your iPhone.
Apple describes this in its security release notes as a bug in the ImageIO framework where “processing a malicious image file may result in memory corruption.”
While that’s not quite as scary as some of the past vulnerabilities that allow remote code execution, it’s still something that can be exploited by hackers — and Apple believes it already has been.
Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.
The silver lining is that this appears to be a targeted attack, likely as part of advanced mercenary-grade spyware tools like Pegasus. This means there’s a good chance ordinary hackers and scammers haven’t glommed onto it yet. However, as with nearly every Apple security patch, now that Apple has announced its existence, it’s only a matter of time before someone else figures out a way to exploit it.
This is the number one reason why you should always apply iOS updates right away, especially when they contain security fixes. Apple has just announced to the world that there’s a critical vulnerability in iOS 18.6.1 and older versions. Even if the full details have yet to be published, there are likely already legions of hackers looking for ways to exploit it.
This also doesn’t just affect the iPhone. Accompanying iPadOS 18.6.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 updates were also released yesterday to patch the same vulnerability. Other devices like the Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro don’t appear to be impacted, and there’s no way the HomePod could be since there’s no way to view images on a speaker (at least not yet).
Even when iOS 26 and the rest of Apple’s new releases debut next month, not everyone can or will update right away. Some devices will be stuck on older versions, while others may be hesitant to upgrade. Apple will undoubtedly continue providing more security updates for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia to support older devices. However, in the long term, it typically only does so for devices that can’t be updated.
For example, Apple also released iPadOS 17.7.10, macOS Sonoma 14.7.8, and macOS Ventura 13.7.8 this week to patch the same vulnerability. However, an iOS 17.7.10 update is conspicuously absent since every iPhone that can run iOS 17 can be updated to iOS 18. However, that won’t be the case for iOS 26, which will drop the 2018 iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR off the list. This means Apple is likely to continue releasing any necessary iOS 18 security patches for quite some time.
