Apple has been on a roll lately, shipping new iOS updates every now and then. It recently seeded the iOS 26.5 Beta 1 update and is now shipping a new iOS 18 update for older and newer iPhones. It is designed to patch security vulnerabilities and protect iPhone users from a notorious malware affecting iPhones.
New iOS 18 Update Protects Against DarkSword
One of the major issues that the iOS 18 update addresses is a system-level exploit known as DarkSword. Older Apple iPhones running iOS 18 but unable to upgrade to iOS 26 have been systematically targeted via multiple chain vulnerabilities to achieve a full kernel-level compromise.
This has been achieved by bad actors with DarkSword which already has affected almost every outdated iPhone in countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia and Ukraine. Hence, the new iOS 18 update patches the OS-level backdoors and has released what is known as a "backported patch".
Moreover, it is extremely important for users to download this new update since DarkSword has been able to hack iPhones for acts of espionage as well as cryptocurrency theft. With the new iOS 18 update, Apple is also enabling Apple Safe Browsing in Safari, which can, by default block malicious URL domains identified in DarkSword attacks.
Hence, we urge users, currently on iOS 18 to download the new update by going to Settings> General> Software Update> Update Now. If users have auto-download enabled, the update will install itself and will take the user to the latest iOS 18 update.
