Originally published at: OS 26.3 Updates Focus on Bug and Security Fixes - TidBITS
Apple has released version 26.3 of all its operating systems, a few weeks later than past performance would have predicted. Although the company has signaled that OS 26.4 will introduce a more personalized Siri, OS 26.3 is still remarkably light on identified changes. The release notes for each update simply say that it “provides important bug fixes and security updates.” Luckily, the community has identified a few welcome refinements to Liquid Glass.
Thanks to Howard Oakley for noting that Apple improved how Reduce Transparency works in macOS 26.3. Previously, some awkward aspects of Liquid Glass transparency persisted even after the user enabled Reduce Transparency, as shown in the Finder sidebar header and the System Settings Search field.
Two other Liquid Glass-related pecadillos fared less well. First, although Apple fixed a macOS 26.2 problem that caused the column divider handles to be overwritten by scroll bars (first screenshot below), if you hide both the path bar and status bar, an unseemly gap appears between the scroll bar and the handles (fourth screenshot below). Additionally, while toggling the path and status bars, I managed to get the filenames to overwrite the status bar (third screenshot below). Worse, all of these were taken with Reduce Transparency on, so why are filenames ever visible under the scroll bar?
Second, the problem Norbert Heger identified with much of the area you can grab to resize a window existing outside the window remains. Apple now lists this bug as a known AppKit issue in the macOS 26.3 developer release notes, and Heger shows how the fix appeared in a beta but didn’t make the final release.
Each of these operating system updates addresses a significant number of security vulnerabilities, and Apple also provides security patches for still-supported older versions:
- iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3: 37 security vulnerabilities
- iOS 18.7.5 and iPadOS 18.7.5: 30 security vulnerabilities
- macOS Tahoe 26.3: 53 security vulnerabilities
- macOS Sequoia 15.7.4: 30 security vulnerabilities
- macOS Sonoma 14.8.4: 36 security vulnerabilities
- tvOS 26.3: 14 security vulnerabilities
- watchOS 26.3: 16 security vulnerabilities
- visionOS 26.3: 25 security vulnerabilities
- Safari 26.3: 6 security vulnerabilities
All the OS 26.3 updates address a vulnerability that Apple describes as being exploited “in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 26.” That’s the language Apple uses for bugs being exploited by spyware, but even those of us who don’t typically worry about state-sponsored attacks would be smart to update soon.
Curiously, although Apple says this vulnerability affects versions of iOS before iOS 26, the iOS 18.7.5 release notes make no mention of it.
Enterprise Changes
Perhaps because system administrators are a more technically demanding audience, Apple saw fit to detail the fixes for several of the updates.
In macOS 26.3:
- FileVault is correctly enabled for standard users when enforced by a device management configuration during Setup Assistant.
- Screen Recording permissions for apps are shown correctly in System Settings when a device management configuration allows them to be enabled by standard users.
- Platform SSO login completes successfully when using the User Principle [sic] Name if the identity provider password is changed outside of macOS.
In iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3:
- Resolved an issue where the Global Address List was not returning search results in Mail and Calendar.
- Basic Authentication Exchange accounts added via profile will not get stuck in the new account creation flow when password or S/MIME settings are modified, or when changing how emails are deleted.
- The lock screen will be shown on Single App Mode devices when a passcode is set on the device.
- Declarative device management software update notifications will not prompt repeatedly prior to the final 24-hour required update window.
- New accounts will not be prevented from logging into Shared iPad due to insufficient storage.
- Resolved an issue with devices losing communication with some device management services.
- The App Store restriction can no longer be bypassed by using Spotlight search or Siri to find and download apps.