Apple releases iOS 16.7.2 and iOS 15.8 to address security flaws

If your iPhone is too old to support iOS 17 (or you just don’t want to update), Apple hasn’t forgotten about you. Amid the release of the first major update to iOS 17 yesterday, Apple also pushed a pair of updates for older iPhones: iOS 16.7.2 and iOS 15.8.

The updates don’t bring any new features or enhancements like iOS 17.1, but they do contain important security patches. iOS 15.8 only has one update for a kernel flaw that was previously patched in iOS 16.5.1:

Kernel

• Available for: iPhone 6s (all models), iPhone 7 (all models), iPhone SE (1st generation), iPad Air 2, iPad mini (4th generation), and iPod touch (7th generation)
• Impact: An app may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.7.
• Description: An integer overflow was addressed with improved input validation.
• CVE-2023-32434

iOS 16.7.2 is more substantial, with 16 security updates that mirror iOS 17.1. Several WebKit vulnerabilities are closed that “may lead to arbitrary code execution” and the Weather and Find My apps were updated to fix flaws that could leak sensitive information. Additionally, some holes in system components were plugged, including ImageIO, mDNSResponder, and ProRes.

To update your iPhone, head over to the Settings app, tap General and Software Update, and finally Download and Install.