Apple putties Krack in macOS, iOS

Apple on Tuesday patched both macOS and iOS against serious vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) protocol used to secure wireless networks.

Information about the flaws, dubbed “Krack” by their Belgian discoverer, made news earlier in the month when security researcher Mathy Vanhoef announced weaknesses in WPA2 that could allow criminals to read information transmitted over a Wi-Fi network thought to be encrypted.

Krack, said Vanhoef, stood for “Key Reinstallation Attacks.”

The macOS 10.13.1 and iOS 11.1 updates addressed the Krack vulnerabilities, as well as a slew of others. The Mac update fixed a whopping 148 flaws, while the iPhone and iPad update quashed 20 bugs. The bulk of the macOS patches – 90 of the total – plugged holes in “tcpdump,” an open-source network packet analyzer that’s baked into the operating system.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here