iOS 17.5 and macOS Sonoma 14.5 update adds anti-tracking feature, offline support for

[harlan4096]

Apple has released the iOS 17.5, macOS Sonoma 14.5 and iPadOS 17.5 updates. The new software comes with a cross-platform anti-tracker feature, and improves the capabilities of the News app.

What's new in iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5 and macOS Sonoma 14.5

Apple has improved its Find My app to add support for cross-platform Tracking Detection. The company has published an article, where it says the feature was developed in partnership with Google, to detect unwanted location trackers that may be used to stalk people. The anti-stalking feature will notify users when a Bluetooth tracker that they do not own is moving with them. The phone will detect the tracker regardless of the operating system that was used to pair with the tracker. Users can locate the tracker by playing a sound, and access instructions to disable it.

The new anti-tracking feature works on iPhones running on iOS 17.5 or above, and Android devices with Android 6.0 or above. It supports AirTag and third-party Find My network devices, along with Bluetooth trackers made by Chipolo, eufy, Jio, Motorola, and Pebblebee.

Security fixes

iOS 17.5 ships with 15 security fixes, while macOS Sonoma 14.5 has about 22 patches, none of which were related to any known exploited vulnerabilities. The macOS Ventura 13.6.7 and macOS Monterey 12.7.5 updates are also available now with 3 security fixes and 2 patches respectively. The Safari 17.5 update addresses a WebKit issue that could have allowed an attacker with arbitrary read and write capability to bypass Pointer Authentication. The update for the browser is available for Ventura and Monterey users.

iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8 is now available for the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad 5th generation, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, and iPad Pro 12.9-inch 1st generation. The updates fix a couple of security issues related to Foundation and RTKit. Apple says that it was aware that the RTKit issue, tracked as CVE-2024-23296, may have been exploited by attackers who had arbitrary kernel read and write capability, to bypass kernel memory protections. The exploit which has been described as a memory corruption issue was addressed with improved validation
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