hoakley February 14, 2022 Macs, Technology, Updates

Apple has released Big Sur 11.6.4 and Catalina Security Update 2022-002

Apple has today released two security updates, bringing Big Sur to version 11.6.4, and Catalina Security Update 2022-002. Although Apple states that these “improve the security” of those old versions of macOS, it also states for each that “this update has no published CVE entries”, suggesting that it isn’t going to reveal what has been fixed for a little while to come.

As usual, the Big Sur update is available via Software Update, and Catalina SU 2022-002 there or through its standalone installer package, available for download at last from here.

Thanks to Mr. Macintosh for drawing attention to this, and to Ian for letting us know that Apple posted the standalone installer on 23 February, nine days after the update was made available.

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1

Ian Trimnell on February 24, 2022 at 12:41 pm

At long last Apple have released an updater for Catalina Security Update 2022-002. Take a look at https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2089?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

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- 2
  
  hoakley on February 24, 2022 at 1:21 pm
  
  Thank you, Ian. Updated, with acknowledgement.
  Nine days to post a standalone installer, though.
  Howard.
  
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3

Ben on March 3, 2022 at 3:53 pm

Anyone here seeing reboot issues with this update? I am getting spontaneous reboots (usually a few minutes after i close the lid) multiple times per day after installing this. Found a digest on another website of others experiencing similar. Seems to affect MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (probably last generation Intel). Based on other’s experiments with reinstalling and rolling back updates, issue probably in the bundled firmware updates.

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- 4
  
  hoakley on March 3, 2022 at 3:59 pm
  
  Erm I don’t think reinstalling is going to do anything. Rolling back macOS is a complex process and doesn’t roll back firmware. As your Mac has a T2, you could do that using Apple Configurator 2, but again that’s non-trivial.
  Are these kernel panics? If so, what do you see in the panic log? Have you reported this to Apple via Support?
  Howard
  
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  - 5
    
    Ben on March 9, 2022 at 6:27 pm
    
    I could have been clearer — the reason why people are suspecting the firmware, is that once this update with the new firmware is installed, reinstalling to older versions doesn’t cause the problem to go away.
    
    The problem doesn’t exhibit as a kernel panic but just a reboot. I leave my Mac and randomly come back to a login screen. I’ve disabled auto sleep and disabled putting laptop to sleep during screen saver and that’s helped.
    
    It did once happen to me while I had my laptop off to the side and so saw the messages right when it happened. It did not say panic (and no similar message in the logs) but unfortunately the message was too short lived for me to take a picture of it, etc.
    
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    - 6
      
      hoakley on March 9, 2022 at 8:33 pm
      
      Thank you.
      Do you know of any other problem like this, probably attributable to a firmware update, which causes a forced restart but isn’t a kernel panic? Because I don’t.
      Howard.
      
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    - 7
      
      Ben on March 14, 2022 at 10:04 pm
      
      This is the first time I’ve had issues with a Mac that reboots without an explicit panic. I also found that odd. Maybe the T2 chip is forcing a reboot so the kernel doesn’t even get to panic. Either way seems like a fail on Apple’s part but not much I can do about that.
      
      As far as firmware issues causing real problems — I had the joy of the Mac mini 2018 panic bug_type 210 issue under Mojave that went on for months (it could have been a year but my memory is blurry on this and didn’t maintain a journal as I no longer administer machines professionally). In that case, once the security update with the bad firmware (2020-002 I believe) was installed, there was no going back. I don’t recall any option to downgrade firmware back then (or maybe it was possible if one had the exact right 2nd system). We had to wait until a security update with newer, fixed firmware was released. I recall disabling sleep avoided the issue there but it wasn’t fully fixed until a later firmware quietly fixed the issue.
      
      In this case, I am going to try the 2022-003 update once it is available as a full offline installer. If that doesn’t work, I am going to try a clean install of 10.15.7 and then jumping straight to 2022-033. Though if the problem is truly in the firmware, there’s no reason for the clean install to work any better than just applying the latest update.
      
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    - 8
      
      hoakley on March 14, 2022 at 10:48 pm
      
      Thank you. Yes, I’m very well aware of firmware causing problems, particularly kernel panics. To invent a new mechanism for spontaneous restarts like this seems a little unnecessary though, doesn’t it? It’s not that uncommon for a serious panic to pass without evidence of a panic log; sometimes they do get saved but don’t result in the normal alert following restarting, and sometimes they just don’t get written at all. After all, a kernel panic is a loss of control.
      Howard.
      
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    - 9
      
      Gordon on March 12, 2022 at 5:22 pm
      
      I have experienced this problem with Catalina Security Update 2022-001 and -002 on my Intel MacBook Air 2020. After apparently successful updates (via System Preferences and SilentKnight), macOS will automatically log out after a period of user inactivity. Looking at the System log, it appears as if the OS is attempting to launch an installer that then fails.
      
      I likewise have disabled auto sleep and disabled putting laptop to sleep during screen saver, but the “auto logout” problem continued to persist. The only way I have been able to recover from this problem is to use Recovery mode to reinstall Catalina.
      
      I just downloaded the combo installer for the -002 update to see if it will give a different result when I have the time to do a reinstall if necessary.
      
      Thanks Howard for posting the link.
      
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    - 10
      
      hoakley on March 12, 2022 at 5:26 pm
      
      Thank you. When you write “log out “ I presume you don’t mean restart?
      In some older versions of macOS, logging out is used as a way of trying to restart key services such as WindowServer. But a restart only occurs when that’s unsuccessful and leads to a kernel panic.
      Howard
      
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11

Gordon on March 15, 2022 at 4:13 pm

Howard,

When I state “log out” I mean the OS ends up at the log in screen. As far as I can tell it has not gone through a restart. Any open applications and work are saved and restored when I log in again. But the cycle repeats. After a period of time with no user activity, the OS ends up back at the log in screen.

I used the combo installer to install the Catalina Security Update 2022-002 but had the same result. So, I again used Recovery mode to reinstall Catalina and the “auto log out” problem disappears. I’m not sure I expect any different behavior from Catalina Security Update 2022-003.

Gordon

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12

Gordon on March 15, 2022 at 9:41 pm

The Catalina Security Update 2022-003 fixed the problem for me.

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- 13
  
  hoakley on March 15, 2022 at 10:13 pm
  
  I’m glad to hear it.
  Howard.
  
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