If your Mac is still running Sonoma or Ventura, and you have already updated it to 14.7.1 or 13.7.1, you might have noticed that neither updated Safari, nor has there been a separate update released yet for Safari 18.1.

According to release notes for Safari 18.1 (20619.2.8), this new version has already been released for Sonoma and Ventura, but as of 1600 GMT on 29 October 2024, there’s still no sign of any separate update, nor was it bundled in the x.7.1 updates.

Sonoma and Ventura had Safari 18 released for them on 16 September 2024, concurrently with Sequoia 15.0. On 3 October 2024, at the same time that Apple released Safari 18.0.1 in Sequoia 15.0.1, it also released Safari 18.0.1 for Sonoma and Ventura, without any CVEs being reported as fixed.

Current versions of Safari read:

• in Sequoia 15.1 – Safari 18.1 (20619.2.8.11.10)
• in Sonoma 14.7.1 – Safari 18.0.1 (19619.1.26.111.11, 19619)
• in Ventura 13.7.1 – Safari 18.0.1 (18619.1.26.111.11, 18619)

leaving the latter two due an update to Safari 18.1, which would ordinarily have been released with the x.7.1 macOS updates, but hasn’t been yet.

Update

As of 2150 on 29 October 2024, both Safari updates are now available through Software Update. Version and build numbers are 18.1 (19619.2.8.111.5, 19619) for Sonoma 14.7.1, and 18.1 (18619.2.8.111.5, 18619) for Ventura 13.7.1, and Apple lists the CVEs they address in this note.

Overnight European time, Apple released a small but urgent update to macOS Sequoia, bringing it to version 15.0.1. Although there are no updates to Sonoma or Ventura, there are updated versions of Safari for both.

This Sequoia update is about 1.42 GB for Apple silicon Macs, and around 500 MB for Intel models. It doesn’t bring any firmware updates, but Safari is updated to version 18.0.1 (20619.1.26.31.7). While Apple has released security notes for the concomitant updates for iOS and iPadOS, there are none reported for macOS.

Although Apple remains tight-lipped about exactly what has been fixed in this update, it does admit to fixing a bug in Messages that could crash the app in unusual circumstances, and to improving “compatibility with third-party security software”. It’s assumed the latter refers to the network problems that have been widely reported.

Changes seen in bundled apps include a single build increment in Messages, and Passwords with a new version of 1.0.1. Apart from those and Safari, the only other bundled app to see any change is Photos, with a small build increment. This suggests that there are undisclosed improvements to the new Passwords app.

Significant changes seen in /System/Library include:

• Dock, small build increment
• CFNetwork and Network frameworks, build increments
• MobileSoftwareUpdate private framework, build increment
• Many Photo-related private frameworks, build increments
• SafariSafeBrowsing private framework, build increment
• Sharing private frameworks, build increments
• APFS remains unchanged at version 2313.1.2.

Note that there are no changes in any kernel extensions.

[Updated with further details at 0830 GMT 4 October 2024.]