[Swordmaker]

The update is NOW available to close the vulnerability. Download and install it from Settings/General/Software update on your iPhone and iPad. This updates iOS to 9.3.5.

This update is for iPhone 4s and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod touch (5th generation) and later.

This is apparently a very targeted, commercial exploit from a security firm who sells access to state agencies. It might have been the one that Apple was outbid on in the white hat security conference last month by a private concern who paid $1 million for a vulnerability because they wanted to monetize it.

More info from the New York Times:

Apple Software Vulnerability Is Linked to Intrusions
By NICOLE PERLROTH —AUG. 25, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO — One of the world’s most evasive digital arms dealers is believed to have been taking advantage of three security vulnerabilities in popular Apple products in its efforts to spy on dissidents and journalists.

Investigators discovered that a company called the NSO Group, an Israeli outfit that sells software that invisibly tracks a target’s mobile phone, was responsible for the intrusions. The NSO Group’s software can read text messages and emails and track calls and contacts. It can even record sounds, collect passwords and trace the whereabouts of the phone user.

In response, Apple on Thursday released a patched version of its mobile software, iOS 9.3.5. Users can get the patch through a normal software update.

Apple fixed the holes 10 days after a tip from two researchers, Bill Marczak and John Scott Railton, at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, and Lookout, a San Francisco mobile security company.

“We advise all of our customers to always download the latest version of iOS to protect themselves against potential security exploits,” said Fred Sainz, a company spokesman.

In interviews and manuals, the NSO Group’s executives have long boasted that their spyware worked like a “ghost,” tracking the moves and keystrokes of its targets, without leaving a trace. But until this month, it was not clear how exactly the group was monitoring its targets, or who exactly it was monitoring.

A clearer picture began to emerge on Aug. 10, when Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates, who has been tracked by surveillance software several times, began receiving suspicious text messages. The messages purported to contain information about the torture of U.A.E. citizens.

Correction: August 25, 2016
An earlier version of this article described incorrectly the day when Apple released a patched version of its mobile software, iOS 9.3.5. It was Thursday, not Wednesday.

[manc]

you are on a political website and have been for some time and yet you never post anything political. Always pumping up Apple. Now do you come here for political news and info , or do you even have a candidate on who you support?

[Lera]

Thanks :)
I had to check twice for the update before my phone would load it .

[Swordmaker]

Apple has quickly closed an iOS vulnerability that has apparently been used by a commercial security firm to sell an exploit to a state level agency to invade an activists iPhone in the Middle East. iOS update to 9.3.5 is now available on Settings/General/Software Update to close the vulnerability that was used to gain access to the activist's iPhone. This update is for iPhone 4s and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod touch (5th generation) and later. At last month's White Hat hackers' conference, Apple was outbid for a vulnerability that was discovered by an unknown private bidder who paid $1 million for just such a vulnerability in iOS 9. . . It is likely this commercial company who provided this exploit is the winning bidder. If so, I certainly hope they charged the state level agency enough to get their money back, since Apple has closed that vulnerability so quickly! — PING!

Apple iOS Security Update
Ping!

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[DesertRhino]

“.... in its efforts to spy on dissidents and journalists.”

This is becoming a norm. It should be a stop the press despotic government red flashing light. Domestic spying on someone who philosophically disagrees, or a journalist who might expose truth.

This is sick Stasi crap.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Thanks for the heads up. Done.

[hey Bean]

Done. Thank you!

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the heads up. This was an obvious state sponsored attack. Updated.

Keep up the good work.