What is changing in Mac firmware?

Mac firmware has undergone two major changes in the last few years: six years ago, with the introduction of the T2 chip, new Macs gained two sets of firmware, EFI for the Intel side and iBridge for the T2; then, with the release of the first Apple silicon Macs three years ago, EFI was gone altogether and replaced by iBoot.

macOS Sonoma is bringing its own changes. As it only supports one Intel model without a T2, EFI firmware updates are gradually fading away. For example, last week’s updates to 14.2, 13.6.3 and 12.7.2 brought no changes at all in EFI firmware, which remains at those versions released with the Sonoma upgrade, and 13.6 and 12.7 security updates.

Not only that, but the number of models supported by EFI updates is dwindling fast. When macOS 11.7.1 was released, it brought EFI firmware for 25 models, 12.7.2 had 19, 13.6.3 only 7, and 14.x has just the single iMac model. Assuming that macOS 15 doesn’t continue to support that lone iMac, it will be the first version of macOS not to support EFI firmware since the end of 2005.

This does simplify my task of maintaining lists of current firmware versions. I have now updated the database used by SilentKnight, and the three pages here listing firmware versions for supported versions of macOS. If you want to check those manually, they’re at:

this page for Macs that are supported by Sonoma, and have been updated to 14.2,
this page for Macs that are supported by Ventura, and have been updated to 13.6.3,
and this page for Macs that are supported by Monterey, and have been updated to 12.7.2.

Older models that are running unsupported versions of macOS thanks to the wonders of OCLP should remain on their last EFI firmware release.

In case you missed it, Apple silicon Macs should now be running iBoot version 10151.61.4, with the same OS Loader version. Their Recovery version should be the same, or may be given using the internal number of 23.3.64.0.0,0, although their Fallback Recovery version could be as early as macOS 13.5 and version 22.7.74.0.0,0, or may be as recent as 14.2.

Intel Macs with T2 chips should all be running firmware version 2020.61.1.0.0, with iBridge at 21.16.2057.0.0,0.

The current EFI version of the iMac19,1 that’s still supported by Sonoma remains at 2020.40.3.0.0, and hasn’t changed since the initial release of Sonoma.

If you’d expect your Mac to be running one of those versions, but it isn’t, then in the first instance try installing the full installer app for the current version of macOS that it’s running. If that doesn’t help, then you should contact Apple Support, or arrange with your local Apple store for them to check it out.