iOS 11.3 breaks Apple's MDM (Mobile Device Management) protocol

We’ve already published an iOS 11.3 bug list, which is being continuously updated. The list consists of reports (either with evidence of the problem, or multiple people talking about it). One problem we highlighted there was related to MDM (Mobile Device Management), with multiple people confirming that a bug in iOS 11.3 has broken this protocol.

For starters, as Apple explains, MDM protocol provides a way to tell a device to execute certain management commands remotely. So, for example, you can update iPhones and iPads in your organization remotely this way.

However, looks like iOS 11.3 has indeed broken this functionality, as in addition to multiple users reports, now JAMF (a popular Apple MDM software provider) has confirmed this. Here what the company said in a blog post published yesterday:

Devices upgraded to iOS 11.3 are returning a new response that does not match Apple’s documented protocol. This response will cause the device to remain in a failed loop, which prevents it from receiving further commands.

Here’s the complete post:

So as you can see, JAMF is suggesting users to not update their devices to iOS 11.3 until they release a workaround. Further, when a user asked for more clarification, here’s what the JAMF representative explained:

The MDM Software Update workflow I’m referring to is using the Jamf Pro action to “Send Remote Commands” and select “Update iOS Version…”

There’s even a bug report over at OpenRadar about this problem.

And here are some discussions going on about this over at Twitter:

https://twitter.com/bradleychambers/status/980908183613997058
https://twitter.com/bradleychambers/status/980958361486348288

There’s currently no official word from Apple on the matter.

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