- Apple may have resolved mercenary spyware attacks
- The so -called memory integrity application (MI) is configured to make Spyware attacks more difficult to develop and maintain
- The new iPhone 17 and iPhone Air series is also the first to include an improved memory labeling extension (EMTE) to provide even more security
Apple may have found a solution against attacks carried out by mercenary spyware suppliers.
The great technological giant states that its newly released memory integrity (Mie) is ready to make spyware attacks much more difficult to develop and maintain.
The application of the integrity of the memory (Mie) will be available for all iPhone users who are updated to the new iOS 26. However, anyone who obtains an iPhone 17 or iphone air will also benefit from the new improved memory labeling function (EMTE).
Built in the arm labeling extension of ARM (MTE) launched in 2019, a tool to detect and avoid memory errors at the software level, EMTE now acts as a real -time defense for iPhone users.
With iPhone products already well equipped with malware -based attacks, these new protections will considerably increase user safety, in a way that could not even the best VPN or other safety tools.
“Due to how dramatically it reduces the ability of an attacker to exploit the vulnerabilities of memory corruption on our devices, we believe that the application of memory integrity represents the most significant update to the safety of memory in the history of consumer operating systems,” says Apple’s official announcement.
Problems with spy software and memory safety
As Apple explains in its blog post, mercenary spyware attacks are more complex and invasive than phishing, malware and other consumer attacks. Crucially, Spyware attacks are the only attacks at the system level against iOS systems observed in nature, according to the supplier.
“The known mercenary spyware chains used against iOS share a common denominator with those who are going to Windows and Android: the memory security vulnerabilities exploit, which are interchangeable, powerful and exist throughout the industry,” explains Apple.
Improving memory safety has been an important approach to Apple’s security team since at least 2018. Fast progress until September 9, 2025, Big Tech Giant launched a new comprehensive memory security defense called Memory Integrity Enforcement (Mie), a system based on Apple safe memory assigners.
On the last iPhone, Mie is also combined with an improved memory labeling (EMTE) in synchronous mode. This means that the function verifies the corruption of memory in real time.
How the new application of Apple’s memory integrity (Mie) can solve them
“With the introduction of the alignment of the iPhone 17 and the iPhone air, we are excited to offer the application of memory integrity: the first industry security security protection, always active, always active, which covers key attack surfaces, including the nucleus and more than 70 Userland processes, built in the extension of improved memory label (EMTE) and admitted by safe alocadores and labels Confidentiality “, reading of the apple announcement.
Specifically, the EMTE function is directed to two of the most common memory corruption errors: the buffer overflows and unused use.
For less techniques, all they need to know is that both vulnerabilities allow attackers to read or even corrup the memory to which they should not have access.
Until now, at least. According to Apple’s security team, the iPhone is now the first smartphone capable of preventing the attackers from exploiting these errors, which makes the attacks significantly more expensive and unreliable to carry out. A mitigation that the team expects to work, for the first time, also against the well -known vulnerability of Specter V1.
Without going into too many technical details, the additional protection provided by Apple’s new Money system means that, even if the attackers manage to exploit the memory corruption error of an iPhone, the memory they could access or modify is extremely limited around that specific vulnerability.
For more information on how it works, see Apple’s publication.
In general, “although there is no perfect security, Mie is designed to drastically restrict attackers and their degrees of freedom during exploitation,” explains Apple.
In addition, Apple is not only improving security within hardware and iPhone software, but the supplier is also making its emte function publicly available for all Xcode developers. When doing this, the team expects it to inspire a broader adoption throughout the industry.
