Apple expands “DarkSword” patches to iOS 18.7.7

According to Apple, Apple widened its latest iOS 18 security update to cover far more iPhones and iPads to stop real‑world DarkSword attacks that can compromise a device from a single website visit. The update followed researchers’ findings about DarkSword and an exploit kit abusing the vulnerabilities that appeared on GitHub, with Apple quietly updating its March 24 security bulletin.

Apple first released iOS/iPadOS 18.7.7 on 24 March to a small set of older devices, fixing several vulnerabilities that are part of the DarkSword exploit chain, while newer devices guided to upgrade to iOS 26 had stopped receiving 18.x updates.

DarkSword is a full‑chain iOS exploit kit that strings together six vulnerabilities in WebKit, Safari, the dynamic loader, and the kernel to go from a browser visit to full device compromise, and the chain has been observed in the wild since at least November 2025 in campaigns set up by commercial spyware vendors and state‑sponsored actors, according to claims.

By loading a compromised site or a malicious advert inside Safari, an unpatched device could be exposed without tapping a link in Messages or approving an install prompt, with researchers noting hundreds of millions of devices potentially affected.