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              macOS 11.2 Big Sur Improves Bluetooth, Squashes Bugs

   Josh Centers

   Hot on the heels of other recent Apple operating system updates (see
   '[1]watchOS 7.3, iOS 14.4, iPadOS 14.4, and tvOS 14.4 Address Serious
   Security Exploit,' 26 January 2021), Apple has released [2]macOS 11.2
   Big Sur to improve Bluetooth reliability and fix bugs that could:
     * Cause external displays to show a black screen when connected to an
       M1-based Mac mini with an HDMI to DVI converter M1-based Mac mini
     * Prevent edits to Apple ProRAW photos from saving in the Photos app
     * Inadvertently turn off iCloud Drive entirely after the user
       disabled iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents syncing
     * Prevent System Preferences from unlocking after entering an
       administrator password
     * Make the Globe key fail to show the Emoji & Symbols pane

   If those bugs don't seem earth-shattering, the focus of the macOS 11.2
   update may have been on security. It includes an eye-popping [3]43
   security fixes that address 54 CVE security entries. Two of the
   vulnerabilities'the same ones addressed in last week's updates to
   Apple's other operating systems'may have been actively exploited in the
   wild. However, no mention was made of a [4]recent vulnerability
   discovered in the sudo Unix utility.

   The macOS 11.2 update advertises itself as being a 3.25 GB download on
   both an Intel-based iMac and an M1-based MacBook Air, although the
   latter Mac's download window inexplicably reports 4.18 GB instead. You
   can install the update using Software Update; [5]Apple appears to have
   stopped releasing standalone downloads for Big Sur updates.

   Given the severity of the exploited security vulnerabilities, we
   recommend installing macOS 11.2 soon if you're already running macOS
   11.1. Wait a few days to make sure the community doesn't find
   unanticipated problems, and then update.

   For those who haven't yet updated from a previous version of macOS,
   however, we recommend waiting a few weeks to determine if macOS 11.2
   will give fence-sitters sufficient confidence to make the jump to Big
   Sur.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://tidbits.com/2021/01/26/watchos-7-3-ios-14-4-ipados-14-4-and-tvos-14-4-address-serious-security-exploit/
   2. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211896#macos112
   3. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212147
   4. https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-research/2021/01/26/cve-2021-3156-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-sudo-baron-samedit
   5. https://eclecticlight.co/2020/12/17/apple-has-stopped-providing-standalone-installers-for-macos-updates/

   Hidden links:
   6. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/02/macOS-11.2-Big-Sur.jpg
   7. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/02/macOS-11.2-M1-update.png

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