Source URL: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/09/apples-new-memory-integrity-enforcement.html
Source: Schneier on Security
Title: Apple’s New Memory Integrity Enforcement
Feedly Summary: Apple has introduced a new hardware/software security feature in the iPhone 17: “Memory Integrity Enforcement,” targeting the memory safety vulnerabilities that spyware products like Pegasus tend to use to get unauthorized system access. From Wired:
In recent years, a movement has been steadily growing across the global tech industry to address a ubiquitous and insidious type of bugs known as memory-safety vulnerabilities. A computer’s memory is a shared resource among all programs, and memory safety issues crop up when software can pull data that should be off limits from a computer’s memory or manipulate data in memory that shouldn’t be accessible to the program. When developers—even experienced and security-conscious developers—write software in ubiquitous, historic programming languages, like C and C++, it’s easy to make mistakes that lead to memory safety vulnerabilities. That’s why proactive tools like …
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: Apple has introduced a security feature in the iPhone 17 called “Memory Integrity Enforcement,” which aims to combat memory safety vulnerabilities commonly exploited by spyware. This innovative approach employs a hardware-based solution through Memory Tagging Extension (MTE), offering a proactive defense against such vulnerabilities without sacrificing performance.
Detailed Description: The text outlines Apple’s new security feature that addresses memory safety vulnerabilities, particularly those that can lead to unauthorized system access by spyware such as Pegasus. The implications of this feature extend across various aspects of information security, software security, and possibly hardware security due to its foundational nature in chip design. Key points include:
– **Memory Safety Vulnerabilities**: These are errors in software programming that allow programs to access data that they shouldn’t. This is especially prevalent in legacy programming languages like C and C++, where the programmer must manually manage memory.
– **Spyware Exploits**: Spyware products often rely on these vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to systems, underscoring the importance of addressing memory safety.
– **Memory Tagging Extension (MTE)**: Developed by Arm, MTE is designed to protect memory allocations by requiring every access request to include a “secret.” If the secret isn’t provided, the application will crash, helping developers identify vulnerabilities.
– **Constant Protection Mechanism**: Unlike earlier implementations that were primarily debugging tools, Apple has integrated MTE into its chips to provide real-time protection against memory safety vulnerabilities.
– **Development Process**: Apple worked for several years to integrate this feature deeply within its hardware architecture to ensure that it operates continuously without negatively impacting overall performance.
– **Performance Considerations**: The challenge of managing secrets for every memory allocation has implications for processing speed. Apple claims to have optimized this to maintain performance while enhancing security.
This development signifies a critical advancement in device security, particularly in combating threats that exploit software vulnerabilities at the memory level, driving new standards for security in consumer electronics. For security and compliance professionals, understanding and implementing similar memory safety mechanisms could be essential in addressing vulnerabilities across their own software and hardware systems.