When the pandemic began and more people found themselves working from home, it wasn’t Apple’s FaceTime or even Google Meet that ended up being the most popular video calling solution. Instead, it was an (at the time) little-known app called Zoom that stole the show. The company grew in popularity so quickly that it couldn’t keep up with the demand, at first, before it also became the subject of many hacking attempts. What this resulted in was discovered vulnerabilities that the developers were not previously aware of.
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How to Update Zoom for Mac
However, it does appear as though Zoom is still experiencing some growing pains of sorts, as a critical vulnerability was discovered. This was said to be putting “all users at risk”, with the following description:
“The Zoom Client for Meetings for macOS (Standard and for IT Admin) starting with version 5.7.3 and before 5.11.5 contains a vulnerability in the auto update process. A local low-privileged user could exploit this vulnerability to escalate their privileges to root.“
Thankfully, Zoom quickly released an update patching this major vulnerability. So if you have the Zoom app installed on your Mac, here’s what you’ll need to do in order to make sure you’re using the latest version available:
- Open the Zoom app on your Mac.
- Click Zoom.us in the Menu Bar.
- From the drop-down menu, click Check for Updates…
- Wait for the Zoom app to check the servers to see if an update is available.
- If an update is available, follow the on-screen steps to install the update.
- If you see the You are up to date message, click the Done button to exit the prompt.
Something that we highly recommend that everyone does, is to make sure that the Zoom app is automatically checking for an update in the background. This helps to ensure that as soon as the developers release an update, it will be downloaded and installed automatically, without you needing to be concerned. Here’s how you can automatically the Zoom for Mac app updated:
- Open the Zoom app on your Mac.
- Click Zoom.us in the Menu Bar.
- From the drop-down menu,
- Click Preferences. Alternatively, you can press CMD + , with the Zoom app open.
- Click General in the sidebar of Zoom’s settings.
- Under Zoom Updates, click the checkbox next to Automatically keep Zoom desktop client up to date.
From here, you can also change the “Update Channel”, which is comprised of two options for you to choose from:
- Slow – Fewer updates, better stability
- Fast – Try the newest features and updates
Just pick one of the options under the Update Channel drop-down, and if necessary, your Mac will automatically install an update. Another option to update Zoom for Mac is to simply navigate to the Zoom Download Center, and click the Download button under the Zoom Desktop Client. Those who are using M1-powered Macs can click the link below the button to install the native version for Apple Silicon.
Andrew Myrick is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US. He enjoys everything to do with technology, including tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Perhaps his favorite past-time is having a never-ending supply of different keyboards and gaming handhelds that end up collecting more dust than the consoles that are being emulated.
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