What's new in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Mac

9/1/2021
7 minutes to read

Applies to:

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Important

On macOS 11 (Big Sur), Microsoft Defender for Endpoint requires additional configuration profiles. If you are an existing customer upgrading from earlier versions of macOS, make sure to deploy the additional configuration profiles listed on this page.

101.40.84 (20.121071.14084.0)

M1 chip native support
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.37.97 (20.121062.13797.0)

Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.34.28 (20.121061.13428.0)

Bug fixes

101.34.27 (20.121052.13427.0)

Bug fixes

101.34.20 (20.121051.13420.0)

Device control for macOS is now in general availability
Addressed an issue where a quick scan could not be started from the status menu on macOS 11 (Big Sur)
Other bug fixes

101.32.69 (20.121042.13269.0)

Addressed an issue where concurrent access to the keychain from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and other applications can lead to keychain corruption.

101.29.64 (20.121042.12964.0)

Starting with this version, threats detected during on-demand antivirus scans triggered through the command-line client are automatically remediated. Threats detected during scans triggered through the user interface still require manual action.
mdatp diagnostic real-time-protection-statistics now supports two additional switches:
- --sort: sorts the output descending by total number of files scanned
- --top N: displays the top N results (only works if --sort is also specified)
Performance improvements (specifically for when YARN is used) & bug fixes

101.27.50 (20.121022.12750.0)

Fix to accommodate for Apple certificate expiration for macOS Catalina and earlier. This fix restores Threat & Vulnerability Management (TVM) functionality.

101.25.69 (20.121022.12569.0)

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on macOS is now available in preview for US Government customers. For more information, see Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for US Government customers.
Performance improvements (specifically for the situation when the XCode Simulator app is used) & bug fixes.

101.23.64 (20.121021.12364.0)

Added a new option to the command-line tool to view information about the last on-demand scan. To view information about the last on-demand scan, run mdatp health --details antivirus
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.22.79 (20.121012.12279.0)

Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.19.88 (20.121011.11988.0)

Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.19.48 (20.120121.11948.0)

Note

The old command-line tool syntax has been deprecated with this release. For information on the new syntax, see Resources.

Added a new command-line switch to disable the network extension: mdatp system-extension network-filter disable. This command can be useful to troubleshoot networking issues that could be related to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Mac
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.19.21 (20.120101.11921.0)

Bug fixes

101.15.26 (20.120102.11526.0)

Improved the reliability of the agent when running on macOS 11 Big Sur
Added a new command-line switch (--ignore-exclusions) to ignore AV exclusions during custom scans (mdatp scan custom)
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.13.75 (20.120101.11375.0)

Removed conditions when Microsoft Defender for Endpoint was triggering a macOS 11 (Big Sur) bug that manifests into a kernel panic
Fixed a memory leak in the Endpoint Security system extension when running on mac 11 (Big Sur)
Bug fixes

101.10.72

Bug fixes

101.09.61

Added a new managed preference for disabling the option to send feedback
Status menu icon now shows a healthy state when the product settings are managed. Previously, the status menu icon was displaying a warning or error state, even though the product settings were managed by the administrator
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.09.50

This product version has been validated on macOS Big Sur 11 beta 9
The new syntax for the mdatp command-line tool is now the default one. For more information on the new syntax, see Resources for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on macOS

Note

The old command-line tool syntax will be removed from the product on January 1st, 2021.
Extended mdatp diagnostic create with a new parameter (--path [directory]) that allows the diagnostic logs to be saved to a different directory
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.09.49

User interface improvements to differentiate exclusions that are managed by the IT administrator versus exclusions defined by the local user
Improved CPU utilization during on-demand scans
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.07.23

Added new fields to the output of mdatp --health for checking the status of passive mode and the EDR group ID

Note

mdatp --health will be replaced with mdatp health in a future product update.
Fixed a bug where automatic sample submission was not marked as managed in the user interface
Added new settings for controlling the retention of items in the antivirus scan history. You can now specify the number of days to retain items in the scan history and specify the maximum number of items in the scan history
Bug fixes

101.06.63

Addressed a performance regression introduced in version 101.05.17. The regression was introduced with the fix to eliminate the kernel panics some customers have observed when accessing SMB shares. We have reverted this code change and are investigating alternative ways to eliminate the kernel panics.

101.05.17

Important

We are working on a new and enhanced syntax for the mdatp command-line tool. The new syntax is currently the default in the Insider Fast and Insider Slow update channels. We encourage you to famliliarize yourself with this new syntax.

We will continue supporting the old syntax in parallel with the new syntax and will provide more communication around the deprecation plan for the old syntax in the upcoming months.

Addressed a kernel panic that occurred sometimes when accessing SMB file shares
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.05.16

Improvements to quick scan logic to significantly reduce the number of scanned files
Added autocompletion support for the command-line tool
Bug fixes

101.03.12

Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.01.54

Improvements around compatibility with Time Machine
Accessibility improvements
Performance improvements & bug fixes

101.00.31

Improved product onboarding experience for Intune users
Antivirus exclusions now support wildcards
Added the ability to trigger antivirus scans from the macOS contextual menu. You can now right-click a file or a folder in Finder and select Scan with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
In-place product downgrades are now explicitly disallowed by the installer. If you need to downgrade, first uninstall the existing version and reconfigure your device
Other performance improvements & bug fixes

100.90.27

You can now set an update channel for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on macOS that is different from the system-wide update channel
New product icon
Other user experience improvements
Bug fixes

100.86.92

Improvements around compatibility with Time Machine
Addressed an issue where the product was sometimes not cleaning all files under /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Defender during uninstallation
Reduced the CPU utilization of the product when Microsoft products are updated through Microsoft AutoUpdate
Other performance improvements & bug fixes

100.86.91

Caution

To ensure the most complete protection for your macOS devices and in alignment with Apple stopping delivery of macOS native security updates to OS versions older than [current - 2], MDATP for Mac deployment and updates will no longer be supported on macOS Sierra [10.12]. MDATP for Mac updates and enhancements will be delivered to devices running versions Catalina [10.15], Mojave [10.14], and High Sierra [10.13].

If you already have MDATP for Mac deployed to your Sierra [10.12] devices, please upgrade to the latest macOS version to eliminate risks of losing protection.

Performance improvements & bug fixes

100.83.73

Added more controls for IT administrators around management of exclusions, management of threat type settings, and disallowed threat actions
When Full Disk Access is not enabled on the device, a warning is now displayed in the status menu
Performance improvements & bug fixes

100.82.60

Addressed an issue where the product fails to start following a definition update.

100.80.42

Bug fixes

100.79.42

Fixed an issue where Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Mac was sometimes interfering with Time Machine
Added a new switch to the command-line utility for testing the connectivity with the backend service
```
mdatp connectivity test
```
Added ability to view the full threat history in the user interface (can be accessed from the Protection history view)
Performance improvements & bug fixes

100.72.15

Bug fixes

100.70.99

Addressed an issue that impacts the ability of some users to upgrade to macOS Catalina when real-time protection is enabled. This sporadic issue was caused by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint locking files within Catalina upgrade package while scanning them for threats, which led to failures in the upgrade sequence.

100.68.99

Added the ability to configure the antivirus functionality to run in passive mode
Performance improvements & bug fixes

100.65.28

Added support for macOS Catalina
Caution

macOS 10.15 (Catalina) contains new security and privacy enhancements. Beginning with this version, by default, applications are not able to access certain locations on disk (such as Documents, Downloads, Desktop, etc.) without explicit consent. In the absence of this consent, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is not able to fully protect your device.

The mechanism for granting this consent depends on how you deployed Microsoft Defender for Endpoint:
- For manual deployments, see the updated instructions in the Manual deployment topic.
- For managed deployments, see the updated instructions in the JAMF-based deployment and Microsoft Intune-based deployment topics.
Performance improvements & bug fixes