On Monday night, Apple published macOS 12.1, iOS 15.2 and siblings. As if Apple admins didn’t already have their hands full remediating the log4shell issue that dropped last Friday.
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The Top 10 macOS Malware Discoveries in 2021
Here are the tactics and techniques of each threat and links to deeper technical analyses. Plus, find out the main lessons Mac admins and security teams can learn from this year’s crop of macOS malware so you can better protect your Mac fleets going into 2022.
The Top 10 macOS Malware Discoveries in 2021
macOS 12.1 brings (among other things) SharePlay to Mac. We have to wait a bit longer for Universal Control. The installers for macOS 11.6.2 and 12.1 should also fix the stalled upgrade issue, when upgrading from Mohave or older. iOS 15.2 brings (among other things) a new App Privacy report.
We also got a bunch of app updates: Xcode 13.2, macOS Server, Apple Remote Desktop, and the new Apple Configurator for iPhone, so you can (finally) add Macs with a T2 chip or Apple Silicon to your Automated Enrollment workflows. We also got Swift Playgrounds 4 for iPad which supports building Swift apps with UIKit and SwiftUI and even uploading them to the App Store.
The conferences for next year are already in full planning mode. MacAD.UK has the dates and location set: March 29 and 30 in Brighton, UK. PSU MacAdmin Conf is asking for your opinion on attendance planning. As always, you can find a list of conferences, with dates and links to their websites and session video archives (so you can catch up all those great sessions that you missed), on my conference page.
This is the last news summary of 2021. Thank you all so much for following along, and most importantly to everyone who wrote something helpful to the community. I hope you get some well-deserved downtime over the holidays and am looking forward to reading and sharing all these great posts next year.
The news summary will return on Jan 14, 2022.
Happy New Year!
Share the gift of being informed with your colleagues and peers: just forward them this news summary and they can subscribe here!!
News and Opinion
- Apple releases AirTag tracking app for Android – Joe Witushek, iMore
- 2021 — the year Apple became a big player in enterprise tech – Jonny Evans, Computerworld (via Martin Lang)
macOS 12.1 Monterey, iOS 15.2 and siblings
macOS 12.1 Monterey (21C52)
- What’s new in the updates for macOS Monterey
- What’s new for enterprise in macOS Monterey
- About the security content of macOS Monterey 12.1
- About the security content of macOS Big Sur 11.6.2
- About the security content of Security Update 2021-008 Catalina
- Download Security Update 2021-008 (Catalina)
- macOS Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation
iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2
- About iOS 15 Updates
- What’s new for enterprise in iOS 15
- About iPadOS 15 Updates
- What’s new for enterprise in iPadOS 15
- About the security content of iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2
- iOS & iPadOS Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation
watchOS 15.2
- About watchOS 8 Updates
- About the security content of watchOS 8.3
- watchOS Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation
tvOS 15.2
- What’s new in tvOS 15 for Apple TV
- About the security content of tvOS 15.2
- tvOS 15.2 Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation
Xcode 13.2
User Guides
- Apple Platform Deployment: Document revision history
- Apple Business Manager User Guide: Document revision history
- Apple School Manager User Guide: Document revision history
- Education Deployment Guide: Document revision history
Apps
- Swift Playgrounds 4.0 for iPadOS (can now build apps!)
- macOS Server 5.12
- Apple Remote Desktop 3.9.5
- Apple Configurator for iPhone
- Apple Configurator for iPhone User Guide
Support
Articles
- Apple has released Monterey 12.1 update, and security updates for Big Sur and Catalina – Howard Oakley
- What has changed in Monterey 12.1? – Howard Oakley
- macOS Monterey 12.1 Update (21C52) is Live! What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
- macOS Big Sur 11.6.2 Update (20G314) What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
- Apple has released Safari 15.2 for Big Sur and Catalina – Howard Oakley
- iOS 15.2’s App Privacy Report: How to turn it on, and what it all means – Jason Cipriani, ZDNet
- Swift Playgrounds 4 is here, and it’s a thing of beauty – Paul Hudson, Hacking with Swift
MacAdmins on Twitter
Security and Privacy
Support and HowTos
- Customizing MacOS guest VMs in Parallels 17 on Apple Silicon – Matt Davis
- macOS Upgrade Bug – Brian Heinz
- How Recovery works on M1 series Macs – Howard Oakley
- Basic default behavior in Nudge (Swift, not Python) – Alan Siu
- Permissions management on Xsan – Erik Hemmeter
- Boot disk layout in macOS Monterey – Howard Oakley
Scripting and Automation
- Stopping an AutoPkg Recipe if VirusTotal Detects Malware – Matthew Warren
- ProfileCreator Manifests Now Available for Jamf – Elliot Jordan (very clever)
Updates and Releases
To Listen
- Brock Walters – Mac Admins Podcast
- Back to conference planning finally – MacDevOpsYVR
- FBI Surveillance Van — Command-Control-Power
Just for Fun
- Dana Sibera: “I’ve had the good fortune to find some really neat retro gear on my travels this year. I’ll revisit the best times in this thread.”
- Scan of the Month – AirPods Evolution
- A Visual Journey Through The History Of Computing – Charles Edge
Support
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