The update to bring macOS Sonoma to version 14.3 isn’t large, although it has some compelling security content as it addresses a vulnerability that is believed to have been exploited already. For that reason alone, don’t delay in updating.

Release notes don’t appear as attractive, though. According to Apple, improvements for 14.3 include:

• collaborative playlists in Apple Music;
• Emoji reactions to any track in collaborative playlists;
• improved AppleCare coverage information.

Piecing together the bugs believed to have been fixed, though, is more encouraging. One serious bug it was claimed to address is the ability to change the password on an encrypted sparse bundle, lost a year ago in Ventura. I have tested 14.3 tonight and confirmed that this has indeed been fixed, and now works as intended using hdiutil chpass. I have therefore closed my Feedback on the original bug.

There also appear to be several bugs fixed in lightweight virtualisation on Apple silicon Macs. Most significant among these are the restoration of shared folders with the host Mac, and a bug that prevented VMs of older versions of macOS from being updated with security releases (thanks to @lumingyi for telling me about this fix). I have yet to test and confirm those, and will report in a further article later this week.

There are firmware updates, taking iBoot on Apple silicon Macs to version 10151.81.1, and T2 Macs to 2020.80.5.0.1 with iBridge: 21.16.3049.0.0,0. I will look at versions of EFI firmware in Intel Macs without a T2 chip in the coming days, and update the tables here and those used by SilentKnight.

In Sonoma 14.3, Apple lists a total of 16 security vulnerabilities that have been addressed, including one in WebKit which it has reports is already being exploited. Apple’s full security release notes are here.

Looking through key System folders, there are plenty of small build increments, but the more significant updates to bundled apps include:

• Music to version 1.4.3
• News to version 9.3
• Photos, build increment
• Safari to 17.3 (19617.2.4.11.8)
• Stocks to version 6.2.1
• TV to version 1.4.3
• Weather to version 4.2.1.

In /System/Library, there are again many bundles with small build increments. Among the more significant changes seen are:

• Display Calibrator app to version 4.18
• Paired Devices app to version 5.3.0
• AGX kernel extensions, version increments
• AMD Radeon kernel extensions, version increments
• Some Virtio kernel extensions, version increments
• APFS to version 2235.80.4
• FileProvider framework, version increment
• SwiftUI framework, version increment
• WeatherKit framework, version increment
• AVConference private framework, build increment
• CloudPhoto private frameworks, build increments.

Overall, this update brings some significant bug fixes, and Apple’s engineering teams have clearly been making good progress on clearing the backlog of bugs before they become too immersed in preparing macOS 15 for beta-release at WWDC.