Apple confirms many of its devices are affected by processor exploits

Apple has confirmed that its devices are affected by the much-discussed “Spectre” and “Meltdown” processor exploits, whose revelation has depressed Intel stock for two days and given a boost to AMD.

“All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time,” the company said in a forum post. “Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store.”

The company plans mitigations “in the coming days” for Safari, to defend against Spectre, and says it’s already released mitigations in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2 to help defend against Meltdown. However, the Apple Watch isn’t affected.