Changes in privilege "SELECT ANY DICTIONARY" in Oracle 12c

From version 12.1 and onwards, Oracle has introduced some changes to enhance security when granting the system privilege "SELECT ANY DICTIONARY".

In the New Features guide for version 12.1, the authors explain:

The SELECT ANY DICTIONARY privilege no longer permits access to security sensitive data dictionary tables DEFAULT_PWD$, ENC$, LINK$, USER$, USER_HISTORY$, and XS$VERIFIERS. This change increases the default security of the database by not allowing access to a subset of data dictionary tables through the SELECT ANY DICTIONARY privilege.

The access to USER$ has also been excempt when granting the system privilege SELECT ANY TABLE and the role SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE, but I have not yet found the documentation that verifies this.