A week of software problems have resulted in Apple unveiling an unannounced iOS update.
The problems began on Tuesday when a Twitter user publicly shared a major security vulnerability for the current macOS, High Sierra, reports The Verge. The flaw allowed anyone with access to a Mac to gain administrator privileges without entering a password. You don't need to be a tech guru to know that's not good. Luckily, Apple was able to fix it in less than 24 hours.
In a statement, an Apple spokesperson said that "security is a top priority for every Apple product, and regrettably we stumbled with this release of macOS. We greatly regret this error and we apologise to all Mac users, both for releasing with this vulnerability and for the concern it has caused," before adding, "our customers deserve better. We are auditing our development processes to help prevent this from happening again."
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So all's well that ends well, right? Not so fast. Other issues were brought to light as the auditing process began. In fact, the security update Apple hastily put in to fix the first problem caused another issue which prevented Mac users from authenticating or connecting to file shares. The company had to release a guide to explain to users how to fix their computers so they could share files once again.
This was still not the end of the story. According to Wired, the rush job to patch Apple's software was causing users who were upgrading their software to experience the very same problem that they had hoped the update would fix.
iPhones weren't immune to the software issues either. This morning, an iOS 11 bug began crashing some iPhones when the clock struck 12:15 a.m. According to The Verge, Apple has had a number of time-related bugs over the years. This morning, Apple decided to issue iOS 11.2 to all iPhone owners in an attempt to fix the crashing.
Apple typically releases iOS updates on a Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST, but this pervasive problem put a rush to release a patch much earlier than the company had planned. Apple has more than 1 billion devices running iOS, so any security flaws or bugs can instantly impact millions of people.