iOS 18.7.7 and iPadOS 18.7.7
Last December I complained that Apple was withholding iOS 18 security updates from iPhones capable of running iOS 26, leaving users who didn’t want to upgrade to Apple’s latest OS version yet in some security peril.
[…]
The good news: As of Wednesday April 1, Apple is pushing out iOS 18.7.7 to all devices running iOS 18. This update, released last month for devices that were not capable of running iOS 26, is now available even for compatible devices.
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Now the bad news: This is happening because of some really bad security breaches like DarkSword and Coruna.
My iPhone was stuck on 18.7.2 since early December and was deprived of FOUR point updates!
I considered this an unprecedented user-hostile move to coerce users to upgrade to iOS 26 when they don’t want to or can’t, and was determined to never buy another iPhone.
What a crazy #Apple50 birthday present! 🎁
[…]
Who else is still holding the iOS 18 line like me?😅
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 visiting a malicious website to full device compromise. 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.
There is no need to tap a link in Messages or approve an install prompt. Just loading a compromised site or even a malicious advertisement inside Safari is enough to trigger the exploit chain if your device is still missing the relevant patches.
After I wrote “DarkSword Exploit Threatens iPhones Still Running iOS 18” (23 March 2026), Apple published the tech note page “Update iOS to protect your iPhone from web attacks,” emphasizing the importance of staying current. It also addresses what those with older versions of iOS should do, noting that Apple released updates for iOS 15 and iOS 16 (to protect against Coruna—see “Older iPhones and iPads Receive Critical Security Updates for Coruna Exploits,” 13 March 2026).
Previously:
Update (2026-04-08): Cédric Luthi:
And now, thanks to DarkSword, people who are still on iOS 17 have another opportunity to upgrade to iOS 18 which has reappeared in Software Update after being removed a few months ago.
It feels a bit spiteful that Apple doesn’t support staying a year behind the major version of iOS like they do — thankfully — with MacOS. The vast majority of iPhone and iPad users just do what Apple encourages — they accept the default setting to auto-update when Apple pushes updates to their devices. People who update manually do so by choice, and if that choice is offered, it ought to be supported.
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One wonders if iOS 18 will get into a weird versioning quagmire that MacOSX did with 10.11
It was the case for me and for others I've read, that the iOS 18.7.7 update only appears after disabling iOS 18 beta updates (public, in my case). Re-enabling beta updates after updating again hides iOS 26 notifications.
@Paul: there’s no “quagmire” if a point release goes beyond .9 … the customary way of expressing versioning does not follow the rules of decimal values. (Which should be apparent by the fact that there can be more than one ‘.’ …)
Just pretend the . characters are dashes.
Upgrading experience to iPadOS 18.7.7 was terrible: broken upgrade UI in Settings app, annoying hello animation, and now constant nagging about completing the configuration by activating Apple Pay.
@Scineram: just set auto updates to off, and then beta updates to off (assuming it is on a developer or public release scheme to prevent updating to 26), then it will show both the 26 and 18.7.7 updates.
On 18.6.2 on an iPhone 14, unable to see anything but the latest IOS26. Tried all enablings and disablings of beta 18, auto on off, etc.
I had no problem updating to iOS 18.7.7 on an iPhone and two iPads. It was a smooth process on all 3 devices - thank you Apple!
@dennis try swiping up on the screen. The iOS 18.7.7 tile was hidden below the iOS 26 update tile. FFS.
I have an iPhone 12 (64GB) that is still stuck on iOS 18.5 and have never seen any other 18.x updates for it. Of course, the iOS 26 upgrade has been visible since October.
