Apple Pulls, Re-Releases Safari 14.1 to Fix Security Issues and Browsing Bugs the Update Introduced

Apple has released a new Safari 14.1 update for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave users after pulling it just a few days ago, due to several reported issues. Apple first started rolling out Safari 14.1 on April 26, to fix browser fixes security vulnerabilities in WebKit, but this reportedly caused several browsing issues in both Safari and other browsers. As a result, Apple then pulled the update on May 1, and has now started the rollout again, still under the version number 14.1.

Apple announced the recommencement of Safari 14.1 rollout with two WebKit fixes for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave users. After installing this update, the build number for Safari 14.1 is 15611.1.21.161.7 on macOS Catalina and 14611.1.21.161.7 on macOS Mojave. The two issues that have been fixed include an integer overflow problem that processed maliciously crafted web content that could potentially lead to arbitrary code execution. This issue was addressed with improved input validation. The other was a memory corruption issue that could also lead to arbitrary code execution. This was addressed with improved state management.

According to the support page, the rollout of Safari 14.1 was started again on May 4, for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave. For users on Big Sur, macOS 11.3.1 was released on May 3, and also contains updates that resolve these WebKit vulnerabilities so users should update their OS as soon as possible.

Safari update caused random issues with browsing

When the update first rolled out it caused problems for many users who took to Apple Support Communities complaining of issues cropping up after updating to Safari 14.1 released on April 26. One user reported that the new version breaks functionality on popular websites like eBay. Several other sites were also constantly failing to load pages and were throwing out repeated requests to reload.