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Apple has utilised its Rapid Security Response feature overnight to roll out its first such update.
What it fixes, however, Apple is staying mum about.
The feature was first announced when Apple launched MacOS Ventura, iPadOS 16, and iOS 16 at 2022’s Worldwide Developer Conference. The updates are designed to deliver exactly what it says on the tin — a faster and more responsive update cycle that can not only provide improvements to apps such as the Safari browser but also address security concerns.
“They deliver important security improvements between software updates — for example, improvements to the Safari web browser, the WebKit framework stack, or other critical system libraries,” Apple’s support page said. “They may also be used to mitigate some security issues more quickly, such as issues that might have been exploited or reported to exist ‘in the wild’.”
The update is only available for the latest versions of Apple’s OSes, however — that is, mobile phones and tablets running iOS 16.4.1 and Mac desktops and laptops running MacOS 13.3.1.
Once updated, the OS version of Apple devices will have an “a” appended to the version number. Thus, iOS 16.4.1 becomes iOS 16.4.1 (a). This update required a reboot and was far smaller than usual OS updates — only 85.7 megabytes — though reboots won’t always be necessary.
Users can also choose to remove these updates, or disable their download entirely.
In this case, Apple’s page for this particular Rapid Security Response only features general notes on how the updates work, and the company’s Security update page doesn’t offer anything further either.
The Verge is reporting that some users experienced issues with the update forcing devices offline, but as of this writing, the issue seems fixed. Phones in the Cyber Security Connect offices have updated without a hitch.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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