- Apple may have resolved mercenary spyware -attack
- The so-called memory integrity enforcement (MIE) is set to make spyware attacks more difficult to develop and maintain
- The new iPhone 17 and iPhone Air Series are also the first to include an improved memory marking expansion (EMTE) to provide even more security
Apple may have found a solution against attacks carried out by mercenary spyware suppliers.
Big Tech Giant claims that its newly launched memory integrity enforcement (MIE) is set to make spyware attacks far more difficult to develop and maintain.
Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) will be available to all iPhone users updated to the new iOS 26. However, anyone who gets an iPhone 17 series or iPhone Air will also take advantage of the new Enhanced Memory Tagging Extension (EMTE) feature.
Built on ARM’s original memory labeling extension (MTE), released in 2019-a tool to detect and prevent memory errors at a software level-functioning EMPTE now as a real-time defense for iPhone users.
With iPhone products that are already well equipped against malware-based attacks, these new protections will significantly increase the user’s security-in a way that not even the best VPN or other security tools could.
“Due to how dramatic it reduces an attacker’s ability to utilize memory corruption vulnerable on our devices, we believe that memory integrity enforcement represents the most significant upgrade of memory security in consumer operating systems,” reads Apple’s official announcement.
The problems of spyware and memory security
As Apple explains in its blog post, mercenary spyware attacks are more complex and invasive than phishing, malware and other common consumer attacks. Of crucial importance, spyware attacks are the only attacks on system level against iOS systems observed in nature, according to the provider.
“Known mercenary spyware chains used against iOS share a common denominator with those targeted at windows and Android: They utilize vulnerabilities of memory security that are interchangeable, powerful and are found throughout the industry,” Apple explains.
Improvement of memory security has been a major focus for Apple’s security team since at least 2018. Spool until September 9, 2025, the Big Tech giant released a new comprehensive memory security defense called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) -T system built on Apple’s Secure Memory Allocator’s Technology.
On the latest iPhone, Mie is also combined with improved memory marking expansion (EMTE) in synchronous condition. This means that the feature controls for memory corruption in real time.
How Apple’s new enforcement of memory integrity (MIE) can resolve them
“With the introduction of the iPhone 17 set-up and iPhone Air, we are pleased to provide enforcement of memory integrity: the industry’s first ever, comprehensive, always-on-memory security protection, covering key attack surfaces-Inclusive core and over 70 user country processes built on the improved memory marking ( Entered allocation and roof insurance protection processes, ”reads the advertised memory.
Specifically, the EMTE function is targeted at two of the most common memory corruption errors: buffer overflow and use-after-free.
For the smaller technical people out there, all you need to know is that both vulnerabilities allow attackers to read or even destroy memory that they should not have access to.
Until now, at least. According to Apple’s security team, iPhone is now the first smartphone capable of blocking attackers from exploiting these bugs, making the attacks significantly more expensive and unreliable to perform. A mitigation that the team expects to work for the first time, against the well-known Specter V1 vulnerability.
Without going into too much technical details, the extra protection provided by Apple’s new MIE system means that even if attackers manage to utilize an iPhone’s memory corruption error, the memory they would be able to access or change is extremely limited around the specific vulnerability.
For more info on how it works, see Apple’s blog post.
All in all, “While there is no such thing as perfect security, Mie is designed to dramatically restrict attackers and their degrees of freedom during exploitation,” Apple explains.
In addition, Apple not only improves Apple security in iPhone hardware and software, but the provider also makes its EMTE feature publicly available to all developers in Xcode. By doing this, the team hopes that it will inspire a wider adoption throughout the industry.
