Gadgetory

your iPhone or Mac may be at risk a Cisco Telos researcher found Macs and iOS devices are at risk to be hacked through apps like iMessage the vulnerabilities in the way the operating systems handle certain image file formats these formats are tiff openexr digital asset exchange and even bitmap files if that sounds like alphabet soup to you just know that these are popular formats being used a malicious image file can execute remote code on certain systems so you might be thinking I'll make sure I don't open any weird images I find the problem is certain applications like I message automatically render images by default remote code execution could also be achieved through mms messages attachments and web pages the researcher says that the vulnerability affects OS 10.7 point 5 and iOS 9.3 point2 and all other previous versions details on how each file format can be used to take over a device we're also published so what's the best way to stay safe make sure your Mac and iOS device are running the latest versions of their operating systems on a Mac click the Apple in the menu bar and click about this mac if you're running 10 point 11.6 you're good on iOS go to settings general then about check the version if you're running 9.3 point2 or below head back to software update and get downloaded that's it for this tech news update I Maya's Akhtar and you can stay on top of the biggest stories at cnet com / update