News

Apple iOS 11.1 – First Major Point Update for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Released

By Andre Da Costa

Last Updated on November 16, 2017

The first major update to iOS 11 fixes the KRACK vulnerability and adds 70 emojis. Read on to learn more.

Since iOS 11 was released in September, Apple has released a few minor updates to fix a few early glitches. The major point update we all expected has been in the works since, but with Friday’s iPhone X launch on the horizon, the company finally took the 11.1 update out of beta this week.

Users can expect a lot of under the hood and some debatable user-facing improvements in this release. The new update is big on emojis, which are becoming as ubiquitous and essential as air it seems—over 70 of the expressive characters are included with this update. Read on to learn more about the update and whether you should get it now.

What’s New in iOS 11.1 and Why You Should Upgrade

Version 11.1 works on the following devices: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod Touch 6th generation. Apple has been consistent with the size of these updates, averaging around 275 to 280 MBs. iOS 11.1 is just 246 MBs for my iPhone 6s, making it smaller than average for a major update.

Now for a breakdown analysis of whats included.

Aside from the new emojis, iOS 11.1 also adds back the 3D Touch app switcher feature. This is the gesture that lets you open the app switcher by 3D touching near the edge of the screen went away with iOS 11, but now it’s been re-implemented.

On the security side, the update touches some of the core areas of iOS 11 such as the Kernel, CoreText, Siri, UIKit, Webkit, Wi-Fi, and Messages. The Wi-Fi update applies to iPhone 7 and later, and iPad Pro 9.7-inch (early 2016) and later. It includes a fix for the recent Key Reinstallation Attacks – KRACK vulnerability. Here are the details:

CoreText

Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation

Impact: Processing a maliciously crafted text file may lead to an unexpected application termination

Description: A denial of service issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13849: Ro of SavSec

Kernel

Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation

Impact: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13799: an anonymous researcher

Messages

Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation

Impact: A person with physical access to an iOS device may be able to access photos from the lock screen

Description: A lock screen issue allowed access to photos via Reply With Message on a locked device. This issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2017-13844: Miguel Alvarado of iDeviceHelp INC

Siri

Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation

Impact: A person with physical access to an iOS device may be able to use Siri to read notifications of content that is set not to be displayed at the lock screen

Description: An issue existed with Siri permissions. This was addressed with improved permission checking.

CVE-2017-13805: an anonymous researcher

StreamingZip

Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation

Impact: A malicious zip file may be able modify restricted areas of the file system

Description: A path handling issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2017-13804: @qwertyoruiopz at KJC Research Intl. S.R.L.

UIKit

Available for: iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation

Impact: Characters in a secure text field might be revealed

Description: The characters in a secure text field were revealed during focus change events. This issue was addressed through improved state management.

CVE-2017-7113: an anonymous researcher, Duraiamuthan Harikrishnan of Tech Mahindra, Ricardo Sampayo of Bemo Ltd

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: Multiple memory corruption issues were addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2017-13784: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13783: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13785: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13788: xisigr of Tencent’s Xuanwu Lab (tencent.com)

CVE-2017-13802: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13792: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13795: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13798: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13796: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13794: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13793: Hanul Choi working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative

CVE-2017-13791: Ivan Fratric of Google Project Zero

CVE-2017-13803: chenqin (陈钦) of Ant-financial Light-Year Security

Wi-Fi

Available for: iPhone 7 and later, and iPad Pro 9.7-inch (early 2016) and later

Impact: An attacker in Wi-Fi range may force nonce reuse in WPA clients (Key Reinstallation Attacks – KRACK)

Description: A logic issue existed in the handling of state transitions. This was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2017-13080: Mathy Vanhoef of the imec-DistriNet group at KU Leuven

via Apple

As with all point updates, you can download over Wi-Fi by opening Settings > General > Software Update, tapping Download and Install, entering your passcode then waiting. When complete, you can pause the update or install right away. Users on a slow connection can connect their Apple device to a computer running the latest version of iTunes then check for software updates.

So, should you get it? Yes, you should, but it never hurts to monitor social media for any early issues that might pop up. Me personally, I’m gonna guinea pig this one out for you. So, see you on the other side.

Drop a line in the comments and let us know how iOS 11 release is going so far. By the way, are you getting an iPhone X by the way?