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Adam Engst 21 comments

Safari 16.3.1

Apple has released Safari 16.3.1 for macOS 12 Monterey and macOS 11 Big Sur with a patch for a single WebKit vulnerability that Apple says may have been actively exploited in the wild. In other words, install this update immediately! You can download Safari 16.3.1 only via Software Update. (Free, release notes, macOS 11+)

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Comments About Safari 16.3.1

Notable Replies

  1. Hi. I just updated to Ventura 13.2.1. Safari remains at 16.3. I restarted to see whether that would prompt an update, but it didn’t. I’ve checked via Get Info, but the version seems to be 16.3. Any suggestions?

  3. Probably a general glitch, then. Thanks for letting me know.

  4. Safari 16.3.1 was released for Monterey and Big Sur. I think it remains at 16.3 for Ventura?
    David

  6. You have the Safari 16.3.1 update if your BuildVersion is
    Ventura = 18614.4.6.11.6
    even if the version number says 16.3.

  7. When I check “about Safari,” is says Version 16.3 (18614.4.6.1.6). I d on’t know how to check the build version for Ventura itself.

  8. Sorry I wasn’t clear. I did mean the build number for Safari 16.3.1 for Ventura is 18614.4.6.11.6, so you still have Safari for Ventura 16.3.

    You can get the build number for Ventura by checking “About this Mac” from the  menu and clicking on the version number in that dialog box. It should be macOS 13.2.1 (22D68) after today’s update.

  9. Thank you. I really appreciate learning that. And the version # is as you said.

  10. Thanks, Adam. I really rely on your articles.

  12. Thanks for clarifying this for me. Better than Apple Support on Twitter could do, LOL. I’m comfortable I have the newest Safari then.

  13. FWIW, the Safari update I just installed for Big Sur also reports itself as 16.3 (build number 16614.4.6.11.6).

    I assume this the same release, compiled for Big Sur, since the build number is identical, not counting the second digit.

  14. On my macOS Monterey system, the version number also lacks the “.1” used in the support article. In Safari’s About dialog: Version 16.3 (17614.4.6.11.6, 17614).

    My guess is the first two digits of the build number in the parentheses correspond to the major macOS version, since they’re 18 on Ventura, 17 on Monterey, and 16 on Big Sur.

  15. Tara

    Further to the version numbering issue, I compared two versions of Apple’s page about the security content of this release (About the security content of Safari 16.3 - Apple Support) - Google’s cached version dated 13 Feb and Apple’s current version dated 14 Feb. We can see that Apple removed the “.1” and added a footnote about build numbers.

    Screen Shot 2023-02-15 at 12.36.29 pm
    Screen Shot 2023-02-15 at 12.36.29 pm1021×1123 170 KB

    Screen Shot 2023-02-15 at 12.36.52 pm
    Screen Shot 2023-02-15 at 12.36.52 pm1078×1167 165 KB

    Screen Shot 2023-02-15 at 12.37.04 pm
    Screen Shot 2023-02-15 at 12.37.04 pm1078×1167 282 KB

  16. MacRumors is correct. Sorry, I was misinformed by a usually reliable source.

  17. Phil

    Hey there, While everyone seems to be trying to decipher the real version number for the latest release of Safari (the deciphering required being an embarrassment for Apple, IMHO), I believe so far, no one has mentioned the latest copyright year (when invoking “About Safari”), is listed as “2022”, not “2023”, as it should be. An additional embarrassment for Apple.

  18. Thanks very much Adam for this post and Al Varnell for your information. That was me (LCD) yesterday on Mac Rumors. My post at 6pm brought this problem I was having to their attention. At 1pm today a moderator in the forum named Nermal wrote that he knew nothing about it. Then KaliYoni wrote an hour ago about this forum here on TidBITS when I saw Al’s posts.

  19. And just to add more confusion, I just installed the Big Sur 11.7.4 update. Immediately after the installation, a Safari update became available. This one is version 16.3.1 (16614.4.6.11.7).

    And it still has a 2022 copyright notice.
    Screen Shot 2023-02-16 at 00.03.06

  20. Apta

    On Big Sur 11.7.3 two updates are available: macOS 11.7.4 and Safari 16.3.1. Because 11.7.3 update had caused me a bunch of problems, I decided to install only the Safari update. Curiously the installer didn’t ask to quit Safari as normally expected. In fact after the installation nothing changed in Safari’s version number: Version 16.3 (16614.4.6.11.6, 16614) even after relaunching Safari.

    I then downloaded the 16.3.1 installer here:
    https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/62/14/032-51569-A_6C8JMC4NSY/3excb9qywqf00i87sfss53vk636jizy6ck/Safari16.3.1BigSurAuto.pkg
    and this one finally gave me Version 16.3.1 (16614.4.6.11.7, 16614)

  21. Everything you said happened to me, but with more. The 11.7.4 update pane also offered Safari 16.3, which, to that level of detail, is what I had. Something around the declared size of the Safari update was downloaded, and the update proceeded normally (which means it took about 50 minutes).

    Immediately after the installation, System Preferences sported a badge with a 1 in it. Minutes of “Checking for updates…” had no effect; it was not until after I restarted that Software Update was able (in short order) to offer Safari 16.3.1.

    It’s like keeping system software up to date is a game of hide-and-seek or a treasure hunt. And then the prize is copyright 2022.

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