iOS and MacOS: Important update for ancient Apple devices: Time to get the iPhone 5S out of the drawer again

January 25, 2023

When it comes to gaping security gaps, Apple is no slouch. After the company released iOS 16.3 for newer devices, ten-year-old bones are now surprisingly getting an update.

The iPhone 5S (here in the stern test) is long past its prime. The same applies to the first iPad Air, the iPad Mini 2 and ten-year-old MacBooks. If the devices are still in daily use at all, an update from Apple was no longer to be expected. After all, the iPhone 5S will soon be ten years old.

Apple releases updates for iPhones, iPads and MacBooks

But the tech oldies were surprisingly given a software update as part of the release of iOS 16.3 (iPhone update also brings the long-awaited function to Germany). Apple recently released iOS 12 (12.5.7), iOS 15 (15.7.3), iPadOS 15 (15.7.3), MacOS Big Sur (11.7.3) and MacOS Monterey (12.6.3).

On the manufacturer’s help pages you can see which devices benefit from it – and among them are real classics. Typically, Apple powers its devices for four to five years, which is considered a respectable amount of time in the tech world.

So it must have been important to consider the ancient devices in this case as well. The revised versions of the older operating systems do not bring any new functions, Apple only speaks of security updates.

Depending on the device, the adapted system areas differ from one another. With the very old devices, Apple calls Webkit, the basic framework on which the Safari browser is built, among other things. There seems to have been a bug there that allowed attacks on the devices. Apple writes: “Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to the execution of arbitrary code.” In some cases, Apple writes, they have information about active exploitation of this flaw.

No updates for iOS 13 and 14

There is no need to look for new versions for iOS 13 and iOS 14. Both are no longer supported by Apple. Devices that were already running iOS 13 made the leap to iOS 15. Apple drew the line back then with the iPhone 5S. The same old iPhone 5C already had to do without iOS 11 and was not given an update this time either.

The updates are available immediately and can be installed in the usual way. To do this, simply go to the General menu item under Settings, then to Software update and follow the instructions. With MacOS, the update can also be triggered via the system settings.