What’s New in the iOS 11.3.1 Update and Should You Upgrade?

If you replaced your iPhone 8 display recently through a third party using non-genuine or non-OEM parts, you might have gotten a surprise when you updated to iOS 11.3; the touch screen stopped working or did not respond accurately. This was partly due to a chip included in the new iPhones that disables core functionality such as touch when modifications have been made. Of course, even authorized experts (as Apple calls them) have been affected by this issue, which resulted in this week’s release. Version 11.3.1 is really small, totaling around 34 to 49 MBs on some Apple devices.  I got the download installed within a few minutes. Users can download the update by launching Settings > General > Software Update. The update is available for iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, iPod touch 6th generation. Here is a list of additional bug fixes and security updates in iOS 11.3.1: Now here comes the part you have been waiting for. Is it a worthy upgrade? Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation Impact: An application may be able to gain elevated privileges Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved error handling. CVE-2018-4206: Ian Beer of Google Project Zero LinkPresentation Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted text message may lead to UI spoofing Description: A spoofing issue existed in the handling of URLs. This issue was addressed with improved input validation. CVE-2018-4187: Zhiyang Zeng (@Wester) of Tencent Security Platform Department, Roman Mueller (@faker_) WebKit Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved state management. CVE-2018-4200: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero WebKit Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation Impact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling. CVE-2018-4204: Richard Zhu (fluorescence) working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative, found by OSS-Fuzz Source Drumroll… Yup! So far I have applied the update to an iPhone 6s and iPad Pro and they are working quite well. It’s a very small download, and it’s important to stay on top of security updates, even if you’re not affected by the display issue. That’s basically it for iOS 11.3.1. Unless you are iPhone 8 user who made a change to your display, there is not much else to see. As you can see, Apple is not quite done yet with iOS 11—the company is already working on its fourth point release, expected sometime in early May.  As always, let us know in the comments how the update went on your Apple device. Comment Name * Email *

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