Apple releases fix for iOS 13 third-party keyboard security flaw

Latest update to iOS 13 fixes all the security flaws missed in last week's update

Apple has, as promised, rushed out a fix for the security flaw in iOS 13 that enabled third-party keyboard providers - such as SwiftKey and Grammarly - to potentially gather keystroke data.

The security flaw would have enabled them to exfiltrate keystroke data, even if that access had not been granted by the user, although there's no evidence that they sought to take advantage of the flaw.

Apple issued a security warning over the flaw just as it released the first update to iOS 13, which had been launched at the same time as the company's new iPhones at the beginning of the month.

"Third-party keyboard extensions in iOS can be designed to run entirely standalone, without access to external services, or they can request 'full-access' to provide additional features through network access.

"Apple has discovered a bug in iOS 13 and iPadOS that can result in keyboard extensions being granted full access even if you haven't approved this access," Apple warned two weeks ago.

That bug has now been fixed, Apple confirmed over the weekend, with the release of iOS 13.1.1.

The update also provides a number of other fixes, including one for a battery-drainage problem that affected early adopters of iOS 13, as well as solutions for Siri's reported problems recognising requests on the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

The release of iOS 13.1.1 comes after last week's release of iOS 13.1, a patch that had been brought forward as a result of a plethora of bugs found in iOS 13.

Apple's release notes reflect how bug-riddled the initial version of iOS 13 was. The post-release updates have brought with them fixes for a number of issues, including bugs in Calendar, CarPlay, Files, Find My, Mail, Memoji, Notes and Reminders.

Apple also released iPadOS 13.1.1 over the weekend, which fixes issues that could prevent an iPad restoring from backup, resolves a problem where Safari search suggestions may re-enable after being turned off, and addresses an issue that could cause Reminders to synchronise slowly.

iOS 13.1.1 and iPadOS 13.1.1 are available to download now on the iPhone 6s and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad mini 4 and later, and iPod touch 7th generation.