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Browser makers Google, Microsoft Corp and Mozilla Corp's Firefox
all confirmed to Reuters that the patches they currently have in
place do not protect iOS users. With Safari and virtually all
other popular browsers not patched, hundreds of millions of
iPhone and iPad users may have no secure means of browsing the
web until Apple issues its patch.
Apple stressed that there were no known instances of hackers
taking advantage of the flaw to date.
On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc's Google and other security
researchers disclosed two major chip flaws, one called Meltdown
affecting only Intel Corp chips and one called Spectre affecting
nearly all computer chips made in the last decade. The news
sparked a sell-off in Intel's stock as investors tried to gauge
the costs to the chipmaker.
In a statement on its website, Apple said all Mac and iOS
devices were affected by both Meltdown and Spectre. But the most
recent operating system updates for Mac computers, Apple TVs,
iPhones and iPads protect users against the Meltdown attack and
do not slow down the devices, it added, and Meltdown does not
affect the Apple Watch.
Macs and iOS devices are vulnerable to Spectre attacks through
code that can run in web browsers. Apple said it would issue a
patch to its Safari web browser for those devices "in the coming
days."
Shortly after the researchers disclosed the chip flaws on
Wednesday, Google and Microsoft released statements telling
users which of their products were affected. Google said its
users of Android phones - more than 80 percent of the global
market - were protected if they had the latest security updates.
Apple remained silent for more than a day about the fate of the
hundreds of millions of users of its iPhones and iPads. Ben
Johnson, co-founder and chief strategist for cyber security firm
Carbon Black, said the delay in updating customers about whether
Apple's devices are at risk could affect Apple's drive to get
more business customers to adopt its hardware.
"Something this severe gets the attention of all the employees
and executives at a company, and when they go asking the IT and
security people about it and security doesn't have an answer for
iPhones and iPads, it just doesn't give a whole lot of
confidence," Johnson said.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and
Susan Fenton)
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