diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 6027125f..ee4e4371 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -202,7 +202,8 @@ jobs:
           (cd build/extra/clang/release && DESTDIR=$PWD/Install-with-cmake cmake --install .)
           (cd build/extra/clang/release && DESTDIR=$PWD/Install-with-make  make install)
       - name: 'Run basic tests'
-        if: ${{ !contains(matrix.os, 'macos-13') }} # FIXME: UPX on macos-13 is broken => disable self-test for now
+#       if: ${{ !contains(matrix.os, 'macos-13') }} # FIXME: UPX on macos-13 is broken => disable self-test for now
+        if: false
         run: |
           make -C build/extra/clang/debug test
           make -C build/extra/clang/release test
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 51bac56c..39b662ac 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ User visible changes for UPX
 ==================================================================
 
 Changes in 4.2.0 (XX XXX 2023):
+  * disable macOS support until we fix compatibility with macOS 13+
   * new option '--link' to preserve hard-links (Unix only; use with care)
   * add support for NO_COLOR env var; see https://no-color.org/
   * bug fixes - see https://github.com/upx/upx/milestone/13
diff --git a/README b/README
index 11042d33..f45aadde 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ and run exactly as before, with no runtime or memory penalty for most
 of the supported formats.
 
 UPX supports a number of different executable formats, including
-Windows programs and DLLs, macOS apps and Linux executables.
+Windows programs and DLLs, and Linux executables.
 
 UPX is free software distributed under the term of the GNU General
 Public License. Full source code is available.
diff --git a/misc/testsuite/test_symlinks.sh b/misc/testsuite/test_symlinks.sh
index 6fa1efa9..9c41be70 100755
--- a/misc/testsuite/test_symlinks.sh
+++ b/misc/testsuite/test_symlinks.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,12 @@
 set -e; set -o pipefail
 argv0=$0; argv0abs=$(readlink -fn "$argv0"); argv0dir=$(dirname "$argv0abs")
 
+# disable on macOS for now, see https://github.com/upx/upx/issues/612
+if [[ "$(uname)" == Darwin ]]; then
+    echo "$0: SKIPPED"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 # IMPORTANT NOTE: do NOT run as user root!!
 # IMPORTANT NOTE: this script only works on Unix!!
 umask 0022
diff --git a/src/p_mach.cpp b/src/p_mach.cpp
index 11022e1f..e01721e6 100644
--- a/src/p_mach.cpp
+++ b/src/p_mach.cpp
@@ -2229,6 +2229,12 @@ tribool PackMachBase<T>::canPack()
             break;
         }
     }
+#if !defined(DEBUG)
+    // disable macOS packing in Release builds until we do support macOS 13+
+    //   https://github.com/upx/upx/issues/612
+    if (my_cputype == CPU_TYPE_X86_64 || my_cputype == CPU_TYPE_ARM64)
+        throwCantPack("macOS is currently not supported");
+#endif
     return true;
 }