Ventura and Monterey Users: Beware Unwanted Sonoma Upgrades

Over the past week or so, reports have been accumulating from users who have dismissed a macOS notification encouraging an upgrade to macOS 14 Sonoma only to find themselves being upgraded anyway. The first report on TidBITS Talk came from Dave C., a developer and highly technical user who had intentionally been keeping his 2018 Mac mini on macOS 13 Ventura. When the notification appeared, he clicked the ⓧ button to dismiss it, but that was somehow interpreted as a positive consent to install.