Apple releases OS X Yosemite 10.10.5, El Capitan 10.11.6 to patch security flaws that caused iOS attacks

Apple today announced that it has released updates to OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan in order to patch the same security vulnerability that led to the targeted attacks through iOS that were reported and patched last week.

Today’s releases fix the issues CVE-2016-4654, CVE-2016-4655, and CVE-2016-4656, which were all first reported jointly by mobile security startup Lookout and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, according to the security bulletins Apple published today (here and here).

Apple said that both of the OS updates include the patches to Safari, which previously had a memory corruption problem that could have resulted in arbitrary code execution if users navigated to “a maliciously crafted website.”

Translation: If you’re running Yosemite or El Capitan, install this update. To do that, open the Updates tab in the App Store and hit Install.

Apple plans to roll out macOS, the successor to OS X, later this fall. That could happen as soon as September 7, at the Apple event in San Francisco where the company will unveil new iPhones.