The cyber security agency under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has warned of high risk vulnerabilities in Apple smartwatches that are running on WatchOS versions older than 8.7.
It may be recalled that Apple some time back unveiled the WatchOS 8.7 --- the sixth major update to the WatchOS 8 operating system. Following its release, CERT-In has come out with an advisory in which it said the older version of the Apple Watch operating system that may allow hackers to bypass the company's security restrictions. "Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code and bypass security restrictions on the targeted device," it said.
Basically, a flaw in the code of WatchOS software could allow attackers to remotely access user data surreptitiously.
Apple Watch users need not panic
CERT-in has given other aspects of vulnerabilities too. These include, “type confusion in Multi-touch component, Multiple out-of-bounds write and memory corruption in GPU Drivers component, out-of-bounds read in Kernel component, and memory initialisation in libxml2 component.”
Apple, for its part, has issued a patch for these vulnerabilities as part of its WatchOS 8.7 update. The list of security issues patched by Apple stated that the particular issue mentioned by CERT-In was discovered by security researcher Natalie Silvanovich of Google’s Project Zero team. A clutch of other vulnerabilities on the system was also addressed in Apple's new update patch.
CERT-In, in any case, has issued an advisory to Apple Watch users to update their devices immediately. Updating to WatchOS 8.7 will help fix any reported security risks.
Apple watch users need not panic or get jittery. Such security issues are routine across operating platforms. Security flaws are regularly flagged by researchers. The updates that these companies come up with from time to time almost always address underlying security vulnerabilities.
To update the Apple Watch, the device has to have at least 50% of battery charge, and must be connected to a WiFi network. If the update is available for your device, you can find it in the 'Settings' where you need to click on 'software update'.
