Apple has just released an update to XProtect for all versions of macOS, bringing it to version 5322. At the same time there’s an update to XProtect Remediator for Catalina and later, bringing that to version 156. As usual, it doesn’t release information about what security issues these updates might add or change.

This version of XProtect adds one new rule to its main Yara file, for MACOS.TIMELYTURTLE.DYCAOC, and amends the existing rule for MACOS.SOMA.OCENA. It also adds a new XPScripts.yr file containing two rules using an osascript (AppleScript) interpreter, MACOS.OSASCRIPT.COTABR and MACOS.OSASCRIPT.COTAWA.

XProtect Remediator 156, which follows version 153, adds one new scanning module, XProtectRemediatorConductor. It will be interesting to see whether this refers to a new codename, or its role among other scanning modules.

The XProtect Behavioural or Bastion rules embedded in XProtect Remediator 156 amend Rule 22, but don’t add any further rules.

You can check whether these updates have been installed by opening System Information via About This Mac, and selecting the Installations item under Software.

A full listing of security data file versions is given by SilentKnight and SystHist for El Capitan to Tahoe available from their product page. If your Mac hasn’t yet installed this update, you can force it using SilentKnight or at the command line.

If you want to install these as a named updates in SilentKnight, their labels are XProtectPlistConfigData_10_15-5322 and XProtectPayloads_10_15-156

Sequoia and Tahoe systems only

This XProtect update has finally been released for Sequoia and Tahoe via iCloud. If you want to check it manually, use the Terminal command
sudo xprotect check
then enter your admin password. If that returns version 5322 but your Mac still reports an older version is installed, you should be able to force the update using
sudo xprotect update

Update: the iCloud update was finally made available after 22:00 GMT on 5 November, over 24 hours after the release of this new version of XProtect.