On Thursday, Apple released a slew of updates to its various operating systems. The Cupertino-based company rolled out iOS 15.4.1 and iPadOS 15.4.1, two weeks after 15.4 first released. The new build fixes a couple of bugs and security exploits.
Addressing Battery Drain and Other Issues on iPhones and iPads
The release notes for iOS 15.4.1 don’t point out any new features, but that’s not surprising. All of the features we expected to see in iOS 15 finally became available with the release two weeks prior. However, several bug fixes are found in iOS and iPadOS 15.4.1.
The new build addresses a problem with batteries potentially draining more quickly than expected after updating to 15.4. There was also an intermittent issue with Braille devices becoming unresponsive when navigating text or displaying an alert.
Lastly, Made-for-iPhone hearing devices sometimes lost connection within some third-party apps. These issues are all resolved in 15.4.1, Apple says.
Security Issues Fixed in iOS and iPadOS 15.4.1
As is normal, the latest build will also patch up some security issues. While Cupertino doesn’t disclose, discuss, or confirm these security issues until after a full investigation and patches are widely available, we do have some information.
There was an out-of-bounds write issue within AppleAVD that could allow an app to executive malicious code with kernel privileges. Apple did confirm it was aware of a report of the issue having been actively exploited. That hole should be plugged now, Apple says. It’s definitely a good idea to update to the latest version.
To check for the new version, go to Settings > General > Software Update. If the latest version is not yet available in your region, check back in an hour or so. It sometimes takes most of the day for the update servers to populate to everyone. As we noted previously, waiting for automatic updates to bring you current could mean waiting much longer.
Updates seem to be weekly
Or biweekly, since 15.4 came out 2 weeks ago. I remember back in my Windows days, Tuesdays were always called Patch Tuesday, because Windows had to be updated every week to keep the bogeyman away.