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3d ago

Apple Ships Memory Integrity Enforcement on iPhone 17 to Thwart Spyware Exploits

Built into A19 silicon, the system enforces synchronous tag checks that kill offending processes instantly, driving up the cost of reliable exploitation.

iPhone 17 India pre-booking starts: Croma opens pre-booking for Apple’s iPhone 17 series and new accessories across 574 stores and online.

Overview

  • Enabled by default, the protection ships on every iPhone 17 and iPhone Air powered by A19 or A19 Pro chips.
  • Apple says the design pairs secure allocators with an Enhanced Memory Tagging Extension using 4‑bit secret tags and Tag Confidentiality Enforcement, with synchronous checks that crash on mismatch.
  • Coverage spans the iOS kernel, more than 70 userland processes, and third‑party apps, with EMTE testing and integration available to developers in Xcode.
  • Internal trials from 2020 to 2025 reportedly blocked many real‑world exploit chains, and Apple’s team could not reconstruct working chains after substitution attempts.
  • Apple says dedicated silicon keeps performance impact negligible, and the default, system‑wide posture contrasts with Google’s opt‑in MTE on Pixel devices and Microsoft’s checks in Windows 11.