14 DAY TRIAL // It’s a software nightmare at Apple, as the company’s latest updates for iOS and macOS are causing a lot of headaches and doing more harm than good.
After users complained that the latest iOS 11.2 breaks down Face ID on a number of iPhone X units, it now looks like macOS 10.13.1 rolled out only recently leaves the door open for hackers to exploit the critical root vulnerability discovered last week.
Wired writes that installing this new macOS update removes the security patch, which means that users need to manually install the fix once again. The bigger difference is that a reboot is now required to complete the install, and the vulnerability remains exploitable until the restart is performed.
While the original knowledge base article released by Apple stated that no reboot was necessary, the company has since updated the advisory to state that “if you recently updated from macOS High Sierra 10.13 to 10.13.1, reboot your Mac to make sure the Security Update is applied properly.”
How to check if the patch is installed
Apple recommends users to check if the root vulnerability patch is installed after installing macOS 10.13.1, and provides the following steps to do this:
Open the Terminal app, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
Type what /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd and press Return.
If Security Update 2017-001 was installed successfully, you will see one of these project version numbers:
opendirectoryd-483.1.5 on macOS High Sierra 10.13
opendirectoryd-483.20.7 on macOS High Sierra 10.13.1
The more worrying thing is that macOS users who aren’t aware that version 10.13.1 resets the root vulnerability patch could leave their computers open to hacks until they manually deploy the fix.
Most likely, Apple will include the patch in a future OS update to make sure that all systems are fully secure, but until this happens, make sure you use the steps above to confirm that your Mac is protected.