Apple Safari

Main article: Web browser

Safari -, web browser developed by the company, Apple is part of, operating system Mac OS X and is also distributed free of charge for. OS Windows

2023: Zero-day vulnerabilities addressed

Apple on February 13, 2023 released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and Safari to fix zero-day vulnerabilities that the company said were actively exploited in the wild (ITW). Read more here.

2022

Browser share in the global market - 9%

As of June 2022

Browser audience exceeded 1 billion users

At the end of May 2022, the analytical service GlobalStats published data according to which Safari not only became the second browser in the world in terms of the number of installations, but also after Google Chrome overcame the iconic mark of 1 billion users.

The Safari browser occupies a system default position for iPhone, iPad and Mac users, which allowed it to build a significant user base over time. According to AtlasVPN research, approximately 1 006 232 879 users use Safari to work on the Internet, or 19.16% of the total number of active visitors to the global network, making it the second browser in the world to have billions of users. Thus, the Safari browser became the second in the popularity rating after Google Chrome, where devices are 3 378 967 819.

Safari browser audience exceeds 1 billion users

To calculate the number of users, AtlasVPN took data from Internet World Stats and combined it with Safari's market share in May 2022, determined by GlobalStats. Since Internet World Stats data dates back to December 31, 2021, this may not be an entirely accurate combined metric.

According to the GlobalStats system, Google Chrome has more than 3.3 billion users, Safari - 1.00 billion, Microsoft Edge - 212.7 million, and in the fourth - Mozilla Firefox 179 million, and in fifth place Internet Samsung - 149.7 million. The statistics given take into account the total number of users on all platforms, without dividing and. personal computer mobile devices^[1]

2021: Safari 15 browser release for iOS and iPadOS

September 26, 2021 it became known that Apple changed Safari in iOS 15.

As reported, the tabs in Safari 15 for iOS and iPadOS taught several tricks. Tricks are available regardless of the user-selected interface. Tabs can now be grouped into groups of tabs that you can save and, when you need a set of tabs again, activate them with one touch. You can group tabs that you opened manually before you started. Tabs are united by a common theme, such as preparing for a trip to a little-known area, purchasing equipment, searching for gifts and anything. A special screen is provided for viewing tabs. It is impossible to overestimate the benefits of this function, but tab groups can also be synchronized between several Apple devices - that is, by grouping the tabs on the iPad, they do not have to be grouped again on the iPhone.

The Safari start page for iOS and iPadOS can now be customized for yourself and for your own needs. You can, for example, select a background picture. Or select interesting sections from the list that will be displayed on the start page. For example, privacy report, Siri offers and more. Like tab groups, the start page is synchronized with other devices.

A search query in the browser can now be sent almost without touching the screen of a smartphone or tablet - by voice. In order for the browser to hear the user, you need to touch the icon with a microphone in the tab bar. After that, you need to tell Safari what the user would like to find. The result can be different - in response, the user will receive either a list of requests, in which it remains only to find the right one and activate it with a touch, or immediately appear on the desired site. In the worst case, you will have to repeat your request, formulating it differently. Artificial intelligence is still not artificial intelligence, but an algorithm. By the way, they complain about the inaccessibility of this function. She doesn't work for everyone. Not only on older iPhone models, but also on "iPhone with Apple A12 Bionic or newer."

Safari 15 for iOS and iPadOS introduced intelligent security features. Apple believes that now no one will be able to collect data on IP. Whether this will work in Russia is unknown. In addition, if the site to which the user is trying to log in is not HTTPS, Safari will find out whether this site supports the secure HTTPS protocol - and if so, uses it to load the page.

iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, using the Live Text function, are able to detect to distinguish text in images. Including in images posted in. Internet If the current version of Live Text is known for the language of this text, you can also translate it. The first version of Live Text owns,,, English,, and Spanish Italian. Chinese German If the Portuguese French iPhone or iPad is set to, text in russian these languages will be translated to. Russian

In Safari 15 for iOS and iPadOS, page reloading can be activated not only by touching the reload button, but also by gesturing - pulling the page down from the top of the page. In addition, web extensions have appeared in Safari 15 for iOS and iPadOS.^[2]

2020

Detection of vulnerability to address bar spoofing

Rapid7 specialists, together with Pakistani security researcher Rafay Baloch, have discovered ten vulnerabilities in seven mobile browsers that can fake URLs in the address bar. This became known on October 21, 2020. The list of vulnerable browsers also includes Apple Safari. Read more here.

Apple Safari market share for March 3.62%

On April 2, 2020, it became known that the Edge browser, released by Microsoft simultaneously with OCWindows 10, took second place in the global ranking of desktop browsers by the number of users. According to NetMarketShare statistics for March 2020, Edge's total share of the browser market was 7.59% (second place) versus 7.37% in February 2020 (third place) and 5.2% in March 2019 (fourth place).

The top five according to the results of March 2020 also includes the Apple Safari browser with a share of 3.62% (3.69% in March 2019). It is in fifth position, having missed another Microsoft browser ahead - Internet Explorer with shares of 5.87% and 7.34% in March 2020 and March 2019, respectively. Read more here.

Safari 13.1 Introduces Third-Party Default Cookie Blocking

On March 26, 2020, it became known that it Safari became the second browser after blocking Tor all third-party ones - cookie by files default.

Released in March 2020, Safari 13.1 received an improved Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) tracking protection feature. From now on, the browser blocks all third-party cookies by default. That is, advertising and analytics firms will no longer be able to use cookies to track user activity in the browser.

Prior to that, Safari had already blocked most of the third-party cookies used to track sites visited by users.

This change is not as big as it seems. However, we have added so many innovations to ITP since the feature was released in 2017 that by now most third-party cookies have already been blocked in Safari, - said Apple software engineer John Wilander

Safari is now the second browser after Tor to block all third-party cookies by default. Although Apple was among the first to add this feature to its browser, Google pushed Google to such a step in May 2019. Then the company announced its intention to block third-party cookies by default in Chrome and Chromium projects. Microsoft Edge is powered by the Chromium engine. The browser blocks third-party cookies, but the lock is not enabled by default.^[3]

2019: Apple removes Do Not Track feature from Safari

On February 8, 2019, it became known that Apple removed support for Do Not Track technology from Safari. Although its main task was to protect users from surveillance by websites, the technology itself could be used by attackers for the same surveillance.

Setting Do Not Track in the browser "told" advertisers not to track user activity on the Internet, but websites have learned to successfully ignore it. Moreover, the very presence of the setting in the browser itself helped them in creating user profiles based on digital prints.

In this regard, Apple decided to remove Do Not Track support from Safari 12.1, built into future iOS 12.2 and MacOS 10.14.4. According to an accompanying note to another version of the browser, the company "removed support for the outdated Do Not Track standard to prevent its possible use as a parameter for creating digital prints."

When creating digital prints to create a user profile, the functionality and settings of his browser are analyzed, and the more they are, the clearer the picture looms. Therefore, browser manufacturers are trying their best to complicate the process of profiling users for websites.

Mozilla, Google and Microsoft have not yet announced whether they will continue to use Do Not Track technology in their browsers^[4].

2018: Google pays Apple billions to remain default search engine in Safari browser for iOS devices

At the end of September 2018, a Goldman Sachs note named the highest previously heard estimate regarding Google's payments to Apple for the right to remain the default search engine in its browser for Safari iOS devices. According to investment bank analyst Rod Hall, Google will pay Apple $9 billion in 2018. Read more here.

2011: Hacking Safari for Windows through a zero-day vulnerability

Participants in the hack2own hacker competition in Moscow in May 2011 hacked the latest version of the Safari browser for Windows on Thursday. Using a zero-day vulnerability (a vulnerability that was not previously known) in Apple's browser, the authors of the hack launched a calculator application without the knowledge of the computer owner. The harmless program was chosen to show the operation of the vulnerability: if the attackers were in the place of the participants in the competition, they would run not a calculator, but malicious code. The hack2own competition is held as part of the Positive Hack Days forum dedicated to practical issues of information security.

According to the author of the hack, the technical director of CISSRT (engaged in security research ON) Nikita Tarakanov, in order to hack the browser, he and his colleagues created a special web page on which a link to potentially malicious code was posted. Clicking on the link automatically starts this code, which in turn starts the calculator.

As one of the organizers of the competition, the head of the research center of Positive Technologies, Alexander Anisimov, told RIA Novosti, several applicants submitted applications for the competition, but only the option from CISSRT turned out to be working and original.

Tarakanov told RIA Novosti that in the MAS OS X operating system, the Safari vulnerability only leads to an emergency shutdown of the browser. However, according to him, this does not indicate a higher security for Mac OS X - the vulnerability does not work due to the difference in the principles of working with the memory of these operating systems.

The winner of the competition received a prize - laptop Toshiba with Safari installed on it.

Earlier, the Safari browser was hacked by participants in another similar competition held at the CanSecWes security conference in Vancouver, Canada, in March.

2009: Safari Features

According to June 2009, Safari is endowed with many properties that all modern web browsers have, such as: blocking pop-up windows, using tabs and scaling. Also, this browser is equipped with the Snapback function, which allows you to instantly return to the original search results or to the top level of any website, even if the user went down several levels. The SnapBack icon appears in the search box when you click the link on the search results page.

Safari uses the same Apple technology to work with graphics as Mac OS X in. This web browser automatically recognizes websites using non-standard fonts and downloads them as needed. Safari was never able to become more popular due to some compatibility issues, Windows and Safari also does not save image pages.

2003: Market Entry

The first official version of the Safari browser was released on June 7, 2003. Prior to that, on mobile devices manufactured by Apple, there were browsers such as Netscape Navigator and IE Mobile. The first version of the browser was developed based on KHTML. On August 23, 2003, the browser was integrated into macOS X, and then the company made Safari the main browser for the operating system.

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