Indian authorities alert Apple Watch models running watchOS versions older than 8.7 have vulnerabilities

The Indian government has warned that Apple Watch users have a number of security flaws. According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) Apple Watch models running watchOS versions older than 8.7 have vulnerabilities that might let attackers run arbitrary code and get around security measures. 

The vulnerability is also highlighted on Apple’s support page. Therefore Apple Watch users are recommended to update to watchOS 8.7, the most recent version, in order to deploy the essential patches.

“Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Apple Watch which could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code and bypass security restriction on the targeted system,” the CERT-in in its note said.

According to a vulnerability bulletin from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, various vulnerabilities affect Apple Watch models using watchOS versions older than 8.7. It has a high severity assessment from the cybersecurity nodal agency.

According to CERT-in, these vulnerabilities exist in Apple watch due to buffer overflow in AppleAVD component; an authorization issue in AppleMobileFileIntegrity component; out-of-bounds write in Audio, ICU and WebKit component; type confusion in the Multi-Touch component; Multiple out-of-bounds write and memory corruption in GPU Drivers component; out-of-bounds read in Kernel component; and memory initialization in libxml2 component.

Moreover, the Indian authority stated that a remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by sending a specially- crafted request. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code and bypass security restrictions on the targeted system.

CERT-in also said that the flaws might let an attacker run arbitrary code on the targeted smartwatch and get through Apple’s security measures. In addition to this, on its support page, Apple confirmed the flaw and noted under AppleAVD impact that it might allow a remote user to execute kernel code.

As a result, the government has requested that users of the Apple Watch install the relevant updates that are part of the watchOS 8.7 update.

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