After seven years, we’re publishing a new macOS hardening guide. Fully updated, modernized, and now publicly available on GitHub as Markdown and on our website as PDF.
The previous guide, written for macOS Mojave (10.14), reflected a very different macOS security model. At the time, hardening often meant working around the operating system, manually enforcing controls, and compensating for missing platform guarantees. That guide served its purpose, but the platform has fundamentally changed since then.
With macOS 26 “Tahoe”, Apple has completed a long transition toward hardware-anchored, architecture-level security. Many security improvements and features are no longer advanced options, but the baseline. At the same time, macOS 26 is the last major release supporting Intel-based Macs, making this a natural breakpoint for a fresh start.
What’s New in the Guide
The new macOS 26 Tahoe Hardening Guide is not an incremental update; it’s a ground-up rewrite. Most importantly, the guide is designed to be usable. The guide intentionally omits using Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions or SSO integrations but focuses on a single macOS client that shall be hardened. Security recommendations are strict, but they respect real-world workflows (in business use cases) and clearly document where functionality is intentionally reduced.
By publishing openly, we want to encourage transparency, feedback, and practical adoption.
Cheers,
Niklas & Julian
At TROOPERS we had some very cool Apple-related talks in the last years. Fair chance there will be more this year! 😉
TROOPERS25:
- Over the Garden Wall — Let’s steal data from your iPhone
- iOS Inactivity Reboot
- Breaking Down macOS Intune SSO: _PRT Cookies Theft and Platform Comparison
TROOPERS24:
- WatchWitch — Hacking the Apple Watch
- Fuzzing at Mach Speed: Uncovering IPC Vulnerabilities on MacOS
- Breaking Barriers and Boundaries: Free, Global, and Stealthy SMS Communication via Satellite on iPhones
- The Hidden Dangers Lurking in Your Pocket – Pwning Apple Wallet ecosystem and its apps
- Apple CarPlay – What’s Under the Hood
Also, readers deploying Apple devices in corporate environments may find the following posts interesting: