Imagine that you’re floating along a quiet lake or stream, in your favorite unicorn- or swan-shaped floatie, with a tall, cold drink in your cupholder and the warm sun shining down on you. It seems pretty idyllic, but in the water beneath you, there’s a desperate life-and-death struggle going on between predator and prey.
Online life is similar, in its way. We visit our handful of favorite sites, laughing at the memes or catching up on the latest stories, while behind the scenes, tech companies are locked in battle with criminal and nation-state hackers bent on stealing money or data. Apple’s recently launched Rapid Security Response updates are its attempt at countering hackers more quickly. So what is Rapid Security Response, and how do you use it?
Vulnerabilities, CVEs, and Updates, Oh My!
The whole online universe we take for granted, from mobile apps to the internet itself, is made up of countless pieces of software. Those include the apps on your devices, their operating systems, and all of the unnoticed bits and pieces that make up a functioning internet. Even the operating systems themselves, from iOS to Linux to Windows, are entire ecosystems of software rather than single programs. While we do encounter occasional hiccups or outages, it’s a minor miracle that the whole system works as well as it does.
Unfortunately, every one of those countless individual pieces of software represents a potential vulnerability that hackers could exploit. Some work for crime rings, some work for nation-states, and some for themselves, but hackers constantly test the software the world runs on in search of those vulnerabilities. Tech companies and private security researchers, for their part, try to detect possible vulnerabilities before the hackers do. Failing that, they’ll try to detect any successful attacks and report them to the companies involved.
Known vulnerabilities are assigned a tracking number through the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system, administered through the CVE Program, which in turn is sponsored by the US government’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), as well asthe Mitre Corporation (a leading security firm). The companies affected by a given vulnerability then do their best to create updates or patches to fix them.
What is Rapid Security Response on iPhone, iPad, and Mac?
The problem with software updates and patches is that they’re only effective once they’re actually installed (“applied”) to your devices. Rapid Security Response, rolled out in 2023, is an attempt by Apple to shorten the time required to update its users’ devices in response to any newly revealed vulnerabilities.
You may have noticed that the operating systems on your devices all have long numbers describing them. At the time of writing, for example, Apple’s MacOS “Ventura” had reached version 13.6.4. This number isn’t random; there’s an organized structure behind it called “semantic versioning.” In this case, the first number, 13, identifies a major version of the operating system (“Ventura”). The second number, 6, tells you there have been six minor updates that added new features or functionality. The third number, 4, tells you that there have been four minor updates to address bug fixes or security issues. The newer MacOS Sonoma sits at version 14.3, which tells us it hasn’t needed any bug fixes or patches yet.
Rapid Security Responses (RSRs) add a new element to this existing structure. In July of 2023, for example, MacOS Ventura received a Rapid Security Response that took it to 13.4.1 c. The letter is what marks it as a Rapid Security Response, a quick update to fix a specific, immediate problem or vulnerability.
What Does a Rapid Security Response Do?
There’s already a well-proven software update process in place for Apple devices, just as there is for Windows, Android, or any other major piece of software. The problem is that these updates are often time-consuming, so users tend to put off installing them until a more convenient moment. That moment might not come for a while, and in the meantime, it’s entirely possible that a crucial vulnerability might go unpatched.
That’s a serious issue for both individual users and administrators in IT departments. For example, cybersecurity site Dark Reading estimated that 57% of all ransomware attacks in 2022 targeted old vulnerabilities with patches available, in some cases for years. RSR updates are intended to address that very specific need in both the personal and corporate marketplaces.
If enabled by the user or IT administrator, the RSR process gives Apple the ability to automatically push high-priority patches directly to devices, and – this is the important part – to also install them automatically without requiring any intervention from the user. This takes away the element of human procrastination and should make most users of recent-generation Apple devices more secure.
How Rapid Security Response Updates Work
Ordinary upgrades and updates come out on at least a semi-regular schedule, and tend to include a number of new features, bug fixes, and patches all in one download. It’s a good, functional system, but it’s not designed for fast response to quick-breaking threats. If a vulnerability affecting Apple devices is detected “in the wild,” by Apple or third-party researchers, the company can use the RSR system to rush out a fix to affected devices.
RSR updates apply to devices running the most recent versions of iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS, which at the time of launch in 2023 were iOS and iPadOS versions 16.4.1 and MacOS 13.3.1. RSR updates will always be applied to the most recent version of each operating system, so as new versions roll out (usually in the autumn), these new updates will stop rolling out to older versions of the OS and begin to become available (as needed) for those newer versions.
RSR updates aren’t only for operating systems. They’ll also be applied as needed to Apple’s Safari browser, as well as the WebKit software that underpins Safari and some other Apple products and services. Hackers love to target browsers because almost everything you do online runs through your browser, so extending RSR updates to the Safari browser and its components makes perfect sense.
Why You Should Be Using Rapid Security Response
Pop quiz: How many uninstalled updates do you currently have across your various devices? If your answer is anything other than “zero,” you should probably enable Rapid Security Response if you haven’t already done so.
Human behavior is the weakness exploited by a high percentage of attacks, and quick-moving security updates won’t stop you from falling for a phishing email or a bogus QR code. Indirectly, though, they can help protect you from the consequences of any momentary lapse. Many of those phishing attacks are designed to exploit a vulnerability in your browser or OS: when you click the link in the email or text (or scan that QR code), it gives criminals the opportunity to install malware or run a script that will give them access to your system.
Enabling quick, automatic updates via RSR means that you’ll always be up to date, with your browser and OS vulnerabilities fully patched and ready to repel these sneaky attacks. It’s a distinct benefit to you, and – because many kinds of malware are self-replicating – keeping your system up to date helps protect everyone else with Apple devices. It’s a win-win.
Enabling Rapid Security Response on Your Devices
If you’re using Apple devices that run the most recent versions of their respective operating systems, you probably have the option of enabling Rapid Security Response. Doing that is pretty straightforward on your devices and requires only a few taps and clicks.
Enabling Rapid Security Response on iPhone or iPad
To enable Rapid Security Response on your iPad or iPhone, take the following steps:
- Open your Settings menu.
- From there, tap General, then Software, and finally Automatic Updates.
- Look for Security Responses & System Files, and turn it on if it isn’t on already.
Enabling Rapid Security Response on Mac
Here’s how to enable Rapid Security Response on your Mac desktop or laptop:
- Start by clicking the Apple menu and then Settings.
- In the sidebar, click the General heading and then Software Update.
- Next to Automatic Updates, you’ll see a small “Show detail” button (a lowercase letter i inside a circle).
- Click that, and check if Install Security Responses and system files are enabled. If not, enable it.
After you’ve enabled RSR on your devices, those updates will install automatically whenever they become available from Apple. If you notice that the version number of the OS or browser on one of your devices suddenly has a letter after it, you’ll know that an RSR update has been installed. You can view all updates on the Apple Security Releases page, including regular and RSR updates. If you’re curious to know what was covered in a specific update, you can click on its entry on the Security Releases page and you’ll get a detailed summary like this one for iOS and iPadOS from July 2023.
Are There Any Drawbacks to Rapid Security Response?
If you’ve only recently heard about this program, the first question to flash through your mind was probably something along the lines of “What is Security Response on iPhone, anyway?” Your second question, perhaps, was “Okay, what’s the downside?”
It’s a fair question. While the positives are clear and significant, there are a couple of potential downsides as well. One is the need for restarts: RSR updates to Safari will close the browser, install, and then launch the browser again; while RSR updates to your OS may also require a restart, and – because they’re installed automatically – that could be inconvenient for you when it happens.
Those are minor quibbles. A more substantive objection is “What if an automatic update breaks something, or malfunctions?” That’s not a hypothetical question: many users reported issues with the first RSR update for iOS, back in March 2023, and the July 10 RSR updates for Mac, iOS, and iPadOS were immediately superseded with a new update on July 12th after user complaints. It is possible to roll back an RSR update if you should ever have a similar experience, and Apple has been quick to fix issues with the RSR program so far.
There’s also a remote possibility that hackers could manage to penetrate Apple’s defenses and use the RSR system to auto-install malware on your devices. Apple is admittedly one of the tech world’s toughest targets, but it could happen.
How Might Rapid Security Response Evolve?
Apple has been notoriously secretive over the years, unlike other tech companies, which orchestrate a succession of supposed “leaks” in order to stir up buzz around their products and services. The company has said little publicly about the RSR program beyond simply announcing it and rolling it out, and responding to those user issues with the first couple of RSR updates.
What follows, then, is pure speculation and should be taken with a grain of salt. One possibility is that Apple may begin rolling out RSR patches on a more frequent or consistent basis (given the sheer number of vulnerabilities cropping up daily, that’s not unlikely). Another is that Apple may extend these time-critical security fixes to application software other than Safari. Eligibility for RSR updates would almost certainly be restricted to Apple software, at least initially, but it’s possible that third-party developers and partners within the Apple ecosystem might eventually enjoy the same benefits. It’s an intriguing prospect.
In the meantime, despite its modest handful of potential drawbacks, most Apple users – certainly the ones who don’t want to be their own Information Security team – would probably benefit from enabling Rapid Security Response on their devices. It won’t provide perfect security, but you’ll enjoy better security with RSR than without it, and that’s not a bad thing.