Security Update 2020-002

Just a quick update:

The user in the german forum responded that he was unable to use Recovery Mode with his Mac mini 2018 and therefore used the Mojave Combo-Updater via Apples App Store. The installation routine automatically continued and installed the Security Update right away.

Myself, I experienced Recovery Mode to only offer a Catalina installation, which I refused.

The user that used Onyx just ran the Maintenance > Rebuild Launch Services routine. It probably fixed the shut down and sleep Kernel Panics, but did not help for his problems with the eGPU and one USB Docking Station (which he now needs to plug off and on after each system start up).

Disconnecting an eGPU leads to an immediate crash of macOS with subsequent restart and macOS Kernel Panic report, which I too can confirm.

Hello luca976,

thank you for joining this thread.

Regarding the mentioned Macrumors-thread, I do not think that that this would work now, after the installations were already completed. This reads more like a service routine this user is doing before he starts any OS- or Security-Update (and it is a reasonable routine to do).

The Security Update 2020-002 updated BridgeOS, which is the firmware of the T2-chip. It seems impossible to revert to an older version, as a reset with Apples Configurator.app will most likely just „reset“ to the actual firmware version, which is the version that obviously provokes the actual troubles.

As of now, I do not think that all this will cause any hardware damages.

I only wish that Apple will finally manage to get all the Thunderbolt/USB-C/USB-3 troubles fixed and all connected hardware can be used flawlessly as one would expect.

I also had various issues with USB-HDD and USB-MemorySticks, i.e. unmounting out of the blue, but these are now rare these times. On the contrary, I’m now much more often confronted with USB-HDD/MemSticks that cannot be ejected, as some ApplicationTask is said to still use the hardware. I think that this might be connected to QuickLook, but I’m not 100% sure so far. In these cases I always need to log off and back in to be able to eject the external USB-HDD/MemSticks. All of these troubles are not related to the latest SecUpd, they bother me a bit longer already.

Regarding Safari.app:

I did your A/B routines and rebooted my system without issues.

But: I never encountered issues while rebooting Mac. I do only get these new and frustrating Kernel Panics when I fire up the sleep or shut down commands *and* had Safari at least opened once between system start up and sleep / shut down. Therefore I exported all my Safari bookmarks to Firefox and have set Firefox as my standard browser for now.

(I had cleared Safari Cashes before, but to no avail either).

I still can easily crash macOS though just by disconnecting the eGPU via top menu bar command.

Safari Reading List: nice, you found out so quickly!

Cheers,

Roger

Hello Stephen,

sadly, it seems there are no news on this topic. The threads in the forums I observe went silent or just get "me too" entries.

Had send a new bug report with the "Safari relation" update and put in links to various forum threads to possibly push the urgency. It seems, that the "Catalina Supplemental Update" did not fix some of the bugs that came with 10.15.4, so it seems that all that are concerned (High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina users) will still have to wait for a new update that hopefully will resolve all of these issues that Apple lately "provided" to its customers.

Roger,

Thanks and you wrote: "I would still doubt that even a complete swap of the data from a backup to the erased internal SSD would exchange any data on the T2 chip. I would assume that this could only be done by an installer, most likely signed by Apple."

And now, after you sending that again, it is finally sinking into my head and YES I think you are correct-- that what we have here is something that is not just about the internal SSD but something that "changed" the T2 Security Chip and as you said, could not be "changed-back" by simply erasing the SSD and re-installing a pre-Apple Security UpDate 2020-002 version.

NOW I THINK I GET IT!

Thanks for posting that and so now I really am going to wait at least 2 weeks to see if Apple issues a new Security UpDate -- I had one person tell me this: "If this is a broad based problem I'm sure Apple's going to fix it... I know there's a developer preview of a new update now".

OK if I learn any more I will certainly post! And if you learn anything, kindly post as well-- really appreciated!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Hello Stephen,

don’t worry about the automatic response.

Apple does look at these reports and, as the response states, they are coming back, if they think they might get some more or new information about an issue that they are working on.

But it also might be that they simply already have a huge amount of informations sent in by other users, so they do not need more input and just don’t respond.

I’m pretty sure that Apple already has acknowledged these issues as I’m sure they got a ton of reports sent in during the past days.

Catalina users are also concerned, so the macOS team will have sleepless nights for a while.

Kernel Panic Reports for sleep and shut down are in this case related to the BridgeOS, disconnecting an eGPU crashes macOS.

Had sent in a few but actually I’m just collecting these in raw text files just in case, Apple is interested later on.

Hello Stephen,

thank you for posting the course of your chat with Apple Support.

Honestly, I can't imagine that Apple's macOS team isn't already aware of these issues, it seems more likely to me that the service employees aren't up to date.

As you and me and most likely a lot of other users had send in their Kernel Panic Reports and bug reports, it is improbable unlikely that Apple still isn't aware of the problems.

I'm really convinced they are working on this already.

And I would expect, they will release a "Security Update 2020-002 v.2" prior to Catalina 10.15.5 which is scheduled for release in May.

Had also experimented with a few adjustments but could not find a work-around yet.

As my Mac mini restarts when I invoke sleep, but can be send to sleep from the then upcoming log-in screen, I tried logging off first and then to choose sleep from the login-screen. Did not work.

I also turned off all sleep functionality in system preferences to see whether there is a connection to these. Did not work.

I also downloaded the separate installer for the Security Update 2020-002 for Mojave, as I wanted to see if a double execution would help (similar to using the macOS Combo Updaters to fix issues), but found one user who states that he had at first run the SecUpd on a macOS installation located on an external drive and then found his Mac affected from the known issues.

As he then started his Mac up from the OS installation on the internal drive (which wasn’t updated then), he was confronted with the same issues.

This clearly indicates that the latest SecUpd has updated code in an area besides the internal hdd/ssd, an memory area within the T2 chip itself.

I do not have the possibility to reset the T2 firmware with Apple Configurator app, but I doubt that this would help either, as it seems to me that Configurator gets the Firmware over the internet from Apple’s servers, so it’s more than likely that one would install the latests, problematic Firmware version. Also, this routine erases all data on internal hdd/ssd, so this would be a major undertaking in the end.

In regard to Catalina, there still is no info whether the latest Supplemental Update fixes the latest issues that were introduced with the SecUpd regarding sleep and copying of bigger data blocks (SoftRAID issue). It might just fix other issues that were reported before the release of the SecUpd.

This is Steve on Tuesday 14 April 2020. I did not have any shut-downs the past 48+ hours because I did not let my Mac go to sleep. Last night I shut-down and this morning upon restart the little notice about a problem appeared. So this is certainly not resolved, we're just finding workarounds.

Interesting with Safari -- but not practical as I use Safari all the time… I will do a restart and shutdown withOUT opening Safari to see if I get the "problem PostIt note" as I am calling it………

Later this week I'll try to telephone Apple. Obviously my chat a week ago did nothing…

And I still don't want to move to Catalina because I'm hearing horror stories there-- don't want to make things worse.

I'll keep trying things and posting. Thanks everyone for your contributions here!!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Tuesday 14 April 2020

Thanks Roger,

I'm having the same problem, as all of you, with the Security Update 2020-00 with Mojave 10.4.6. Since the update, on a iMac pro, I experienced:

• after the sleep mode, messages of external hdd or pen drives disconnected.
• after every, literally...every, restar I receive the kernel message with BridgeOs involved. just once I manage to solve it with a SMC reset. At the restart..worked fine...but since later on..back to square one.
• it happened 1 time to have a bellini dockstation disconnected after a restart. solved just an unplugged and a replugged.
• unexpected eject of pen drives, out of the blue. Never thought it could be related to the Security update...but then I read that even the Security Update 2020-001 had bug and problems...including this one.
• on the Macrumors forum, and you Roger mentioned, someone tried the procedure:

"I have updated 3 macs with mojave security patch 2020-02 (imac 2019, macmini 2012, macmini 2018) so far no problems.

My procedure: First thing a Onyx cleanup, then a PRAM reset, download the whole 1.6GB standalone file from apple downloads and install.Maybe the standalone update is better (as combo updates usually are)."

Did anyone tried the complete procedure?

I'm skeptical that it would work...and worried that I might start having unexpected shutdowns problems such as the ones someone of you are experiencing, but not me right now.

I'm curious also the understand if this kernel problem might be just a bug...so hardware is somehow not touched by all of this...or if it can actually do create hardware problems. If this might be the case, I'd say Apple should be accountable for any damage our machines might have in the future considering that, by now, they know about the Security Update 2020-002 reports all of us we sent (would be interesting to know what they might answer when I'll bring the iMac for repairing stating that it was an Apple responsibility..so they should cover the costs!)

Anyway...I'm waiting response as well from Apple about the reports...

Cheers,

Luca

Hi Stephen,

no, unfortunately no news from my side...but yes, switching to Chrome or Firefox it seems working so far...

Agree with Roger..the best we might have will be just an update..hoping it will solve the all of our issues. But with this lockdown situation don't know when they will release it...

Cheers,

L

Hello Steve,

it was posted yesterday evening in the Forum thread I had opened at the beginning of April at german Mac user website MacGadget.de.

User bird posted:

"Security Update 2020-003 Mojave

Es gibt inzwischen eine Beta des kommenden Security Update 2020-003 Mojave. Vielleicht mal das ausprobieren?"

{Transl.: "By now, there is a beta of the upcoming Security Update 2020-003. Probably try this out?"}

I'm pretty confident that we will see Updates soon, most likely in conjunction with the awaited Catalina.5.

Hallo Steve,

ja, ich komme tatsächlich aus Deutschland, deshalb sind meine englischen Beiträge sicher bisweilen schwer verständlich und sicher nicht fehlerfrei!

Your German seems a lot better than just to be marked as "etwas". Might be that I would have a hard time to understand the Schwäbisch dialect (I'm living in Bavaria, but "originate" from the Ruhrgebiet ;) ).

I've got somewhat disappointing news:

in another thread there is one user who meanwhile tried out the 2020-003 beta and states that it did not fix the issues he had.

He assumes that Apple probably has given up on fixing the problems for pre-Catalina OS versions, but there is still hope for the final 2020-003 build.

A forced Catalina upgrade would force me into at least 2 more software subscriptions, a very unpleasing side effect.

And a very disappointing Apple experience…

Anyway, we'll see what Apple delivers.

cheers, Roger

Replying to my own post, I just saw this from early 27 May 2020 in the MacRumors section for this 2020-002 security update Kernel Panic issue. Someone upgraded to 2020-003 and wrote this:

Just upgraded to security update 2020-003.. opened Safari, and let it sleep, and BAM another crash.

So I am not going to install this 2020-003 Apple Security Update until I hear more or speak with Apple.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Wednesday 27 May 2020

I guess that would help if the Time Machine BackUp was prior to the 24 March 2020 installation of the Security Update 2020-002. But wouldn't any data after that date, any files or anything created since then, be "lost"?

Thanks,

Steve

Monday 6 April 2020

Thank you for your detailed and factual report. This is a nightmare as about every 60-90 minutes my Mac restarts…

Tomorrow I will try to restore my Mac Mini with a backup from prior to 24 March -- a full "SuperDuper!" bootable backup that does not have the update. I'll report back then - it could be 20 hours from now. I'm in Belgium.

Thanks again -- In the future I will not do any updates until at least 2 weeks have gone by (maybe more - hey, I stayed with Mac OS 10.12 until last November!!) and then will update an external SSD and use that before updating my internal SSD.

I've used Macs and only Macs since 1989 -- certainly have had issues before -- but this one is really impacting me. Backup Backup Backup-- and I do. Now to try to get back to normal here. (I've heard there are similar Kernel Panics with 10.15.4 - Catalina -- so an upgrade likely NOT the solution right now).

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Monday 6 April 2020 22:04 Belgium