Apple Gives Siri a Memory and Patches a Possibly Exploited iPhone Flaw

Alongside iOS 27.2, the security fix reaches the iPhone XS and XR, and Apple says about 80% of owners still run iOS 26.

Ask Siri about the restaurants it suggested last week and, Apple says, it'll now remember what it told you.

That memory is the headline feature of iOS 27.2, which Apple released Monday for the iPhone 11 and newer, along with more than 160 security fixes, TechCrunch reported. Still, the fix that reaches furthest isn't the Siri one. A patch pushed back to phones as old as the iPhone XS closes a flaw that Apple says may have been used against specific people.

The memory only works where Siri AI works. Apple's release notes, which Ars Technica published in full, limit it to the iPhone 15 Pro, the 15 Pro Max and every iPhone 16 model and later. Siri AI still isn't offered in the European Union or mainland China. The update adds French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, which TechCrunch says arrive in beta.

Siri can now see more of what's on the phone, too. Apple's notes list photos attached in Messages, the people on a calendar invite, voicemails, Safari history and the Reading List as new places it can pull answers from.

The counterweight is one switch. A setting called Excluded Apps lets owners pick which apps Siri, Search and suggestions can reach, all from one screen, according to Apple's notes. The same update brings support for SynthID watermarks to Photos, which Apple says helps flag images made or changed with generative tools. So the phone learns more about its owner, and it also gets better at spotting what a machine made.

The security side runs in three lanes, and that's where it gets more useful than it sounds. Apple's security releases page lists iOS 27.2 for the iPhone 11 and later, iOS 26.7.2 for the same phones still on last year's software, and iOS 18.7.11 for the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, all dated Oct. 26.

That middle lane covers a lot of people. TechCrunch reported that many of the fixes were carried back to iOS 26, and Apple says about 80% of iPhone owners haven't left it.

The oldest lane carries the most serious fix. Apple's advisory for iOS 18.7.11 describes a flaw in CoreGraphics, the system code that draws images and documents, where opening a booby-trapped file could let an attacker run code. Apple says it's aware of a report that the bug "may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 27." The advisory credits Meta Product Security with the find. It also lists a separate fix for a bug that could let a malicious app use the camera without permission.

TechCrunch noted that Apple uses that "targeted individuals" phrasing when phones have been broken into by government spyware or a police forensic device. Apple didn't say who exploited this flaw, TechCrunch reported.

Apple's page adds one more thing to know before tapping install: once an iPhone takes an update, it can't go back to the earlier version.

An iPhone XR won't remember last week's restaurants, because it gets none of Siri's new memory. It does get the fix for a flaw Apple says someone may already have used against real people.

Source: TechCrunch, retrieved October 27, 2026. Other sources: arstechnica.com, Apple, Apple (2).