Update series in the past week: Apple updated the operating systems of current iPhones and iPads as well as Macs, Apple Watch devices, HomePods and Apple TV boxes on Thursday evening. But that wasn’t all. Various older products have also been updated. And you should import them urgently for security reasons.

Four security-critical gaps This affects both iPhones and iPads as well as the Apple Watch, which some users still have on earlier versions due to older iOS hardware. IOS 12 is available for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as well as iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and 3 plus iPod touch of the sixth generation. 4.9 ready. According to Apple, the update fixes a total of four security-critical vulnerabilities.

These affect the font parser, the kernel and Apple’s FaceTime video chat technology. Allegedly at least three of the four bugs are already being exploited in the wild. It is therefore important that the updates are installed as quickly as possible. It was said that malicious code can be executed with kernel rights. Google’s Project Zero discovered three of the four holes and reported them to Apple.

Confusingly, Apple updates iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 Not; Here, the group apparently expects the users to migrate collectively to iOS or iPadOS 14. The devices that are officially supported by iOS 12. 4.9 can no longer be updated to the newer version.

Apple Watch and missing macOS update For the Apple Watch, Apple presented watchOS 6.2.9 and 5.3.9 . These each come with three security-relevant bug fixes. These are the aforementioned two kernel bugs plus the FontParser vulnerability, through which manipulated fonts can execute malicious code. FaceTime in the form that can be used on the iPhone and iPad is not implemented on the Apple Watch, which is why Apple can save the fix here.

What is currently missing is an update for older macOS Versions. Here Apple only supplied macOS 10. 15 alias Catalina, macOS 10. 14 (Mojave) or 10. 13 (High Sierra) however, were not considered with security updates. Why this is so remains unclear; there are definitely reasons to stay on Mojave because with Catalina Apple has removed support for 32 bit apps. (bsc)