iOS 14.5 and macOS Big Sur 11.3 are finally out of the beta phase and rolled out to the public. The latest updates carry a bevy of forward-facing features that users might find useful. Other than the mix of features, Apple has also fixed several bugs, and improved security of the platforms. According to the latest, Apple has fixed a critical security flaw on macOS Big Sur 11.3 which was able to bypass built-in malware protection. It is great to see the vulnerability finally patched in the build.
Apple Fixes Critical Security Flaw With macOS 11.3 Update That Allowed Hackers to Bypass Built-In Malware Protection
As mentioned earlier, Apple has fixed a crucial security flaw in macOS Big Sur 11.3 that bypassed malware protection. The company conformed the news to TechCrunch that the vulnerability has been patched which could have potentially allows a hacker to remotely access someone's private data. Hacker could do this by tricking the user into opening a specific spoofed document, whereby accessing the data without consent.
Apple told TechCrunch it fixed the bug in macOS 11.3. Apple also patched earlier macOS versions to prevent abuse and pushed out updated rules to XProtect, macOS’ in-built anti-malware engine, to block malware from exploiting the vulnerability.
According to Cedric Owens, who discovered the security flaw back in March, "All the user would need to do is double click — and no macOS prompts or warnings are generated." A security researcher, Patrick Wardle, the exploit was the byproduct of a logic bug in macOS's code. Due to the bug in the underlying code, macOS was not classifying some apps and skipping security checks.
Apple also stated that it has fixed the flaw on earlier versions of macOS in order to avoid potential threats and abuse. The built-in malware system XProtect has also been updated by the company which will block malware from attacking. At this point in time, it is unclear how many users were affected by the vulnerability since it was exploited for months. As mentioned earlier, Apple has also seeded iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 to the public, so do read more details on what is new in the update.
Were you aware of the macOS Big Sur 11.3 security flaw? Let us know in the comments.
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source https://wccftech.com/macos-11-3-fixes-crucial-security-vulnerability-that-bypassed-malware-protection/