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No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

joshua.hu

201–210 of 242 posts

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#202

Apple, in my opinion, does a very good job of supporting old devices. Buying an iPhone and keeping it for 6 years is a great strategy and when amortising the cost of the phone over those 6 years, it's price competitive with Android. I do wish legislators forced Apple and Google to give users a path to install an alternative OS on their device. That would enable old iPhones(and Androids) to have their lifetime extende…

>Buying an iPhone and keeping it for 6 years is a great strategy and when amortising the cost of the phone over those 6 years, it's price competitive with Android. What's stopping you from keeping your Android 6 years making it an event better value? Most people I know don't throw away their Androids after 3 years but keep them as long as iPhones. Basically until it breaks/dies. So far I don't know anyone who got hac…

Well android patching after 3 years is pretty new thing compared to Apple policy. Apple was and is keeping security updates for very long time with major updates on top of that for iOS. Not knowing someone does not mean they will not be hacked or already has not been by downloading some app from the store.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My laptop is older than that and I have no problem getting updates. Turns out tightly coupling hardware and software for general computing devices is not such a great idea for users or the environment.

Microsoft straight up disallows Windows 11 installation on plenty of PCs that could easily run it. Sure you can argue that it's "easy" to install Linux on it, but that's out of scope for the typical user.

Apple straight-up disallows MacOS updates on plenty of Macs that could easily update, too. I'd even argue they're worse than Microsoft about it; I heard about Opencore Legacy Patcher looooong before I knew people were modifying Windows 11 images to get a working install.

> you can argue that it's "easy" to install Linux on it

In my experience, the average Linux install wizard is less technically involved than the MacOS one. So yeah, maybe I would argue that.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#204
post #196
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any model more than 5 years old (Xr and Xs) are essentially not being updated and not secure. So an iPhone 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and X are all not secure and most people who use the iPhone are totally aware of this. That reads very much like X's are not supported. The 2nd sentence even says it explicitly.

That was about the literal iPhone X (the letter X). The iPhone Xr and Xs (roman numeral 10) are still supported.

It’s made more confusing by the fact that the comment omits all the S models from the list of unsupported models (along with the iPhone 4 for some reason).

So at a glance one could assume that the XS is lumped in with the X just like the 6S is lumped in with the 6.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#205

I don't know what OP expects from such an old device. Apple goes above and beyond other manufacturers in terms of support. The phone is almost 10 years old, the only thing Apple should do is send out a push notification warning users their device is no longer supported.

Quoting the post:

> iOS 15.8 is still powering those devices, seemingly with official Apple support, with the latest update from October the 25th, which addressed some security vulnerabilities.

> In reality, however, Apple seems to only be addressing some security issues in its older supported devices.

The author is surprised, reasonably IMO, that if a device is getting security updates, you are still exposed to known vulnerabilities.

For a tech competent user this is worse than clearly being out of support in which case you would retire the device.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft straight up disallows Windows 11 installation on plenty of PCs that could easily run it. Sure you can argue that it's "easy" to install Linux on it, but that's out of scope for the typical user.

Apple straight-up disallows MacOS updates on plenty of Macs that could easily update, too. I'd even argue they're worse than Microsoft about it; I heard about Opencore Legacy Patcher looooong before I knew people were modifying Windows 11 images to get a working install. > you can argue that it's "easy" to install Linux on it In my experience, the average Linux install wizard is less technically involved than the Mac…

Most people don't even know how to install an OS.

I wouldn't expect the typical person to be able to do it.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#207

I don't know what OP expects from such an old device. Apple goes above and beyond other manufacturers in terms of support. The phone is almost 10 years old, the only thing Apple should do is send out a push notification warning users their device is no longer supported.

Quoting the post: > iOS 15.8 is still powering those devices, seemingly with official Apple support, with the latest update from October the 25th, which addressed some security vulnerabilities. > In reality, however, Apple seems to only be addressing some security issues in its older supported devices. The author is surprised, reasonably IMO, that if a device is getting security updates, you are still exposed to know…

Well that's just weird, you either support devices or not.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#208
post #181

I feel this is misleading as most iPhone users are totally aware that iPhone Models not running iOS 17 are not being actively updated. The list is widely published: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/models-compatible-wit... Any model more than 5 years old (Xr and Xs) are essentially not being updated and not secure. So an iPhone 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and X are all not secure and most people who use the iPhone are tot…

This is about the browser, not the OS. The unique thing about apple is that they tie the browser to the OS. So you won't even get application updates, which is quite surprising for anyone that has ever touched a computer. That is some Windows 98 nonsense right there.

IIRC the browser is a part of the system because the engine is used everywhere in the system. For a long time in iOS it was WebKit that rendered attributed strings for instance.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#209
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about the browser, not the OS. The unique thing about apple is that they tie the browser to the OS. So you won't even get application updates, which is quite surprising for anyone that has ever touched a computer. That is some Windows 98 nonsense right there.

IIRC the browser is a part of the system because the engine is used everywhere in the system. For a long time in iOS it was WebKit that rendered attributed strings for instance.

FYI that is exactly what Microsoft proclaimed back in the day.

Doesn't sound better today does it?

At least on Windows they didn't prevent you from installing a different browser.

Re: No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability

#210
post #111

Always a smile when I see my blog posted on hn:) To answer three questions: 1) this was not reported in the context of any bug bounty[0], and the total conversation between me and Apple is 4 emails (1: hello do you plan to fix this? 2: can you reproduce this on the newest ios17? 3: no. 4: if you are able to reproduce it on ios17 let us know) 2) exfiltration is obviously possible, I’m not sure why I would even need to…

Welcome to HN, in as gentle a way possible I refute this statement

> Apple continues to support nearly-decade-old devices like the iPhone 6S, which and iOS 15.8 is still powering those devices, seemingly with official Apple support, with the latest update from October the 25th, which addressed some security vulnerabilities.

With: try to update your Apple Watch with a device running the latest iOS 16

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