Apple today has stopped signing iOS 14.4.1, which means that users who have updated their device to iOS 14.4.2 can no longer downgrade. This follows Apple’s release of iOS 14.4.2 one week ago, which included an important security fix.
Apple released iOS 14.4.2 last week to fix a critical security vulnerability. Apple said that a bug in WebKit could allow a malicious website to activate arbitrary cross-site scripting. According to Apple, the vulnerability had been exploited in the wild.
Prior to iOS 14.4.2 being released last week, iOS 14.4.1 was released on March 8 to patch a separate vulnerability in WebKit. This means that Apple released two point updates to iOS 14.4 in March to fix separate WebKit vulnerabilities.
Starting today, users can no longer downgrade from iOS 14.4.2 to to iOS 14.4.1. Reverting to older iOS builds is common for those with jailbroken devices. Restoring an iPhone or iPad to a previous version of iOS can sometimes be helpful for users who experience significant bugs after upgrading to the latest version of iOS.
This means anyone experiencing issues with iOS 14.4.2 will have to wait until a future update to resolve their problems. Apple stops signing older versions of iOS to ensure that as many people as possible are using the newest and most secure releases.
The next public release of iOS is likely to be iOS 14.5, which is currently in developer and public beta testing. It could be released as soon as sometime this month.
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