What to do if your Mac is hit by the Apple Silent Ethernet Killer Update aka “031-51913 Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration Data 3.28.1” [Updated]

“If you have access to a system that wasn’t updated with Ethernet Killer:

Go to System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext and copy the working file extension and transfer the file over to your corrupted computer or partition

Turn off System Integrity Protection (SIP) by restarting in recovery mode (command-R) and go under Utility in the top menu and open Terminal app.

Type in “csrutil disable” and return.

Restart computer and you now with be able to delete the bad
AppleKextExcludeList.kext and drop in the good AppleKextExcludeList.kext

Restart and Ethernet will be recognized again.

Turn the SIP back on by doing step 2 and 3 again but type in “csrutil enable”

Source: Reddit Post “WARNING: Software update #031-51913 breaks Ethernet port on most Macs (BCM5701 driver)”

Update: Apple has published the official fix in this support document.