New iPhone security ups pressure on spyware
Security upgrades aim to make zero-click iPhone exploits far harder to build.
Apple is rolling out Memory Integrity Enforcement on the iPhone 17 line and iPhone Air, an always-on set of protections aimed at blocking memory-safety exploits used by mercenary spyware.
MIE builds on ARM’s Enhanced Memory Tagging Extension in Apple’s A19 chips, alongside secure allocators and tag-confidentiality measures.
Older devices without the new tagging hardware also receive memory-safety upgrades. Apple says new Spectre V1 leak mitigations arrive with virtually no CPU penalty.
Comparable ideas exist elsewhere, such as Windows 11’s memory integrity (HVCI) and Android’s MTE support on Pixel 8, but Apple’s approach is enabled by default across key attack surfaces. Security reporters note the move significantly complicates spyware operations.
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