Mac OS X 10.2.5 Update Available

jarrettwold2002 writes "ThinkSecret mentioned that 10.2.5 would be out this month; well, it's out much sooner than the usual end of the month dates that Apple loves. It might be available via Software Update later today or tomorrow, but is available for purchase on CD via the Apple Store, right now. 'The 10.2.5 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for the following applications, utilities, services, and technologies: Address Book, AirPort, AppleScript, Bluetooth, Classic compatibility, Disk Copy, Disk Utility, Finder, Help Viewer, iChat, Image Capture, IP Firewall, Kerberos, Mail, OpenGL, Print Center, Rendezvous, and Sherlock.'" The release notes are not yet available. Update: 04/10 23:09 GMT by P : It is now available via Software Update, too.

Comments

Whoa...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's new... an *intentional* link to a nonexistant page...

Re:Whoa...

[jkujawa]

Apple puts its software updates in one place, and they're picked up by Akamai's caches from there.

Re:Whoa...

[davesag]

Poor documentation doesn't equal bad code

no but it does imply bad programming.

Re:Whoa...

[shamino0]

The Software Updates utility links to the page. Obviously, the script/user who made the update available hadn't yet put the release notes in place at the time the article was written.

It's there now, however.

I wonder if it will address battery issues

[thunderbird46]

Some (Dual USB) iBook users are having battery problems with 10.2.4 -- seems 10.2.4 messes up something in the power management so that when running unplugged the machine'll run till some arbitrary level of charge remaining (from 50%-90% of capacity left) and then suddenly go into sleep. Plugging the machine in starts the battery charging from 0%. Here's hoping 10.2.5 addresses that.

Re:I wonder if it will address battery issues

[Halo1]

From the Archive.bom file in the installer:
[snip]
./System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Battery.menu
[snip a lot of files below that directory]
./System/Library/SystemConfiguration/PowerManageme nt.bundle
[snip also several files in that directory]

So even if they didn't fix that issue with the update of the PowerManagement bundle, at least they tinkered with the display of the battery status :)

Re:I wonder if it will address battery issues

[blakey_4]

I just installed the new update and it seems to improve the battery life or at least the display shows that the battery life is extended. I'm running off the battery. Before the update it showed I have about 1:05. After the update, it now shows I have 2:10 left on the battery and it's at 55%. Usually my battery lasts about 2:30.

Re:I wonder if it will address battery issues

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, something's different. I use that unix script fro OSX hints to check my battery status in more detail. The "flags" variable changed from being just 5/0x005 for plugged in to 838860805/0x32000005.

The script may be found here.

Is this a typo?

[Pirogoeth]

Here's the release notes from 10.2.4:

The 10.2.4 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for the following applications, utilities, services, and technologies: Address Book, AppleScript, Classic compatibility, Disk Copy, Disk Utility, Finder, Help Viewer, iChat, Image Capture, IP Firewall, Kerberos, Mail, OpenGL, Print Center, Rendezvous, and Sherlock. It provides audio, disc recording, graphics, printing improvements, AFP and WebDAV networking and Windows file service improvements, as well as USB, FireWire and SCSI device compatibility enhancements. The update also provides updated security services and includes the latest Security Updates.

Looks pretty similar...

Re:Is this a typo?

[dankow]

Looks pretty similar...

That's because this is a combo installer, and those are all the changes since 10.2. Read the link, and you'll find out that there's a page that lists the 10.2.5 changes separately.

Re:Is this a typo?

[Halo1]

Although the web document doesn't mention it, if you look at the contents of the update (lsbom MacOSXUpdate10.2.5.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom), you'll see that all those components are indeed updated (again). And I'm sure I don't have the combo-updater, since I've already got 10.2.4 installed and the update is "only" 40MB.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Airport Fixes?

[peterdaly]

I hope this update will make my 12" TiBook with Airport Extream stop crashing my Linksys Wireless access point.

That is really a problem for me.

-Pete

Re:Airport Fixes?

[sporty]

Isn't this a Linksys problem if it crashes due to errant traffic? You may wanna talk to them about this, incase someone with 10.2.4 lives next door :)

Re:Airport Fixes?

[baryon351]

That would make sense to me too.

I once worked at a place that had banned macs from the network, as the mac Novell client could login with many extra write permissions over most drives it shouldn't have been able to log in to, and could quite easily have screwed things up badly.

Of course, blaming the macs for having a 'buggy client' was the easy solution, instead of finding why the server actually allowed this to happen :P

Re:Airport Fixes?

[anwnn]

I just troubleshot my Airport Extreme 12" TiBook with a Linksys 4-port Wireless router. It was dropping packets like crazy, even within 5 feet of the router.

I then switched the router to channel 11, and can report great success. Give it a shot.

Re:Airport Fixes?

[phyxeld]

Linksys definitely has a problem if rogue clients can crash their APs, but Mac OS X boxes really do do some weird wifi stuff. Quite often, when my airport card is on, linux users nearby who are on their consoles see a constant stream of kernel messages about "undersized frames". If I turn off my airport, it stops. I've seen a few macs do this, with a few different linux boxes. The common factor between the linux boxes is that they all were running (or had recently been running) in RF_MON mode. In any case, it only happens sometimes, and it's definitely caused by the presence of airport-enabled macs. Quite strange.

There are a lot of oddities I'm really hoping this update will fix. Among them, the sometimes-forgetting to ask for my encrypted disk password upon waking from sleep: If it doesn't ask, the disk just hangs, and the machine has to be rebooted. I really hope thats fixed. Currently I have to remember to hdiutil detach -force disk1 (or whatever df shows the volume mounted as) before I close the lid, if I don't want to risk crashing.

I can't seem to find the standalone combo update for download yet. The update is in Software Update, but I usually like to download the 10.2.x combo updater, so I can keep it with my 10.2 disks for later use. Tried guessing links from previous updates, but no luck. Anybody got a link to the combo update yet?

Re:Airport Fixes?

[phyxeld]

Right after I posted that, I reloaded apple's downloads page for the 50th time, and it just showed up.

The combo updater is here. Yay.

Bluetooth update?

[davesag]

I wonder if I'll finally be able to use my mac as a virtual bluetooth headset. i mean i love being able to dial, send sms messages and answer the phone from my mac but then i have to go into the other room and find my phone to actually talk to anyone. It would be much more awesome to just click answer and then speak/listen, and to be able to use the voice activatable functions in the phone etc. Then my phone can stay in its drawer where it belongs until it's walkies time.

Re:Bluetooth update?

[davesag]

My point is I already own a Mac and a phone, my Mac has a mike and a speaker. I use my Mac to drive the phone in every respect except to actually talk to people via voice, and issue voice instructions to the phone. So rather than spend more money on a bluetooth headset that I'd only lose anyway, I want the bluetooth stack in osx to handle audio. Consider the possibilities.

Bluetooth Mouse?

[Iron Chef Unix]

The update states: Bluetooth Setup Assistant now works with certain Microsoft keyboards and mouse devices Does that mean we can use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard now? As far as I know, this was not supported before.

10.2.5 contains 10.2.4

[NaugaHunter]

The specific 10.2.5 changes are here.

It's out, and fixes the clock reset issue

[carou]

It's downloading as I type. And I'm glad to see in the release notes:

Addresses an issue in which the date may unexpectedly be set to 1969 or 1970 during startup.

Free Space "needed"

[marklark]

It might just be me... But Software Update told me that I needed "499MB" of free space to do the installation.

I started cleaning out some chaff from the disk and wasn't finding enough, so I started digging around in the internals of the .pkg (looking for the Perl script that checks such things) - to no avail.

So... After downloading it to the Desktop and starting it up, it tells me that I only need "163MB" of space.

Cool. On I go.

Update features (from versiontracker)

[dynayellow]

Bluetooth Setup Assistant now works with certain Microsoft keyboards and mouse devices.
Includes Bluetooth support for Nokia 7650 and P800 phones.
Improves compatibility for discs burned with certain Panasonic consumer burners.
Adds Image Capture support for Canon EOS 10D, ZR65, and ZR 70 cameras.
Adds disc burning support for several device-LaCie d2 DVD Multi U&I Drive and d2 CD-RW 52x24x52x, Visual Frontier COHH-B1-A48 and COSP-B1-C24, MacPower Cold Chisel 24x12x24x8x, and these BUSlink devices: FW5252FM FireWire 52x24x52x CD-RW drive, FW4848FM FireWire 48x12x48x CD-RW Drive, RW4040FM FireWire 40x12x40 CD-RW Drive.
Addresses an issue in which domain name lookups could fail if the DNS server responded with a very large reply packet.
Improves the way that LDAPv3 connections time out when idle.
Addresses a potential data loss issue that could occur when copying certain files to an SMB volume.
Addresses issues with Internet Sharing when certain types of DSL or cable modem connections are shared.
Improves security by resolving an issue in which a guest could gain read access to the contents of a shared Drop Box folder remotely.
The Internet preference pane can now store .Mac passwords that are up to 32 characters long.
Addresses an issue in which some Apple internal modems could not establish or maintain a connection to certain Scandinavian Internet service providers
Improves Mail's selection of character encoding for messages sent in these languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian.
Improves Mail responsiveness for accounts configured with multiple POP servers, when the servers are unavailable.
Addresses an issue in which an application could unexpectedly quit when printing, if /tmp was missing or unavailable.
Addresses an issue in which a damaged GIF file, such as a Web site graphic, could cause an application to unexpectedly quit.
Addresses an issue in which certain PICT graphics could not be displayed.
Addresses an issue in which the date may unexpectedly be set to 1969 or 1970 during startup.
Addresses an issue when using the Hanin input method for Traditional Chinese in which Carbon applications could unexpectedly quit if a modifier key (such as Control) was pressed when no text insertion point was available.
Addresses an issue in which Classic fails to start ("Error 1016") when applications available to a non-Admin user are restricted.
Addresses an issue in which the Classic environment could become unresponsive after placing a Classic application's save confirmation dialog box in the background.
Addresses an issue in which using the Command-Option-Shift-Q key command would immediately quit the Classic environment.
Improves the reliability of AppleEvents traffic (inter-application communication) between software running in the Classic environment and native Mac OS X; addresses an issue in which a user might not be able to logout after using a Mac OS 9 version of America Online (AOL).

Fixes SERIOUS Directory Services vulnerability.

[netsrek]

According to a vulnerability report release by @Stake, this fixes a serious security hole.

http://www.atstake.com/research/advisories/2003/a0 41003-1.txt


Overview:

DirectoryServices is part of the MacOS X information and authentication subsystem. It is launched at startup, setuid root and installed by default. It is vulnerable to several attacks ultimately allowing a local user to obtain root privileges.


Details:

During the startup of DirectoryService, the application creates a lock file by executing the touch(1) UNIX command. It executes touch through the system() libc function. This function is inherently insecure and its use is strongly discouraged in privileged applications.
Since this call to system() does not specify a full path to the touch(1) command, it is possible for an attacker to modify the PATH environment variable to specify a directory containing her own version of the touch(1) command. In this instance, this would cause DirectoryService to execute arbitrary commands as root.

In order for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability, they must first cause DirectoryServices to terminate. This can be done by simply connecting to port 625 repeatedly using an automated program.

OpenGL is much faster

[presearch]

In my game tranquility, I'm seeinga solid 10% increase in frame rate. Very nice Apple! Thanks.

Security Update Components in Mac OS X 10.2.5

[Rouxfus]

This information was distributed on Apple's security-announce mailing list:

Mac OS X 10.2.5 is now available. It contains fixes for recent vulnerabilities in:

1. Apache 2.0: Fixes CAN-2003-0132, a denial of service vulnerability in Apache 2.0 versions through 2.0.44. Apache 2.0 is distributed only with Mac OS X Server, and is not enabled by default.
   
   Directory Services: Fixes CAN-2003-0171 DirectoryServices Privilege Escalation and DoS Attack. DirectoryServices is part of the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server information services subsystem. It is launched at startup, setuid root and installed by default. It is possible for a local attacker to modify an environment variable that would allow the execution of arbitrary commands as root. Credit to Dave G. from @stake, Inc. for the discovery of this vulnerability.
   
   File Sharing/Service: Fixes CAN-2003-0198 where the contents of the write-only DropBox folder can be revealed. When enabled, Personal File Sharing on Mac OS X or Apple File Service on Mac OS X Server, a "DropBox" folder is available by default to allow people to deposit files. This update no longer allows the permissions of the "DropBox" folder to be changed by a guest.
   
   OpenSSL: Fixes CAN-2003-0131 Klima-Pokorny-Rosa attack on PKCS #1 v1.5 padding. The patch from the OpenSSL team, which addresses this vulnerability, is applied to Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server.
   
   Samba: Fixes CAN-2003-0201 which could allow an anonymous user to gain remote root access due to a buffer overflow. The built-in Windows file sharing is based on the open source technology called Samba and is off by default in Mac OS X.
   
   sendmail: Fixes CAN-2003-0161, where address parsing code in sendmail does not adequately check the length of email addresses. Only the patch from the sendmail team is applied to the currently-shipping version of sendmail in Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server.
   
   

System requirements: Mac OS X 10.2.x (Jaguar)

Mac OS X 10.2.5 may be obtained from:

1. Software Update pane in System Preferences
2. Apple's Software Downloads web site:
3. 
   Updating from Mac OS X 10.2.4:
   http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120210
   The download file is titled: MacOSXUpdate10.2.5.dmg
   Its SHA-1 digest is: 1f98f9a21c3f17be823e2d63d90e534df01b3fdf
   
   Updating from Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.2.3:
   http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120211
   The download file is titled: MacOSXUpdateCombo10.2.5.dmg
   Its SHA-1 digest is: a8ed6287d5bd0bdf67a2c0fd97b3af810f178d21
   
   

Information will also be posted to the Apple Product Security web site:
http://www.apple.com/support/security/security_upd ates.html

This message is signed with Apple's Product Security PGP key, and details are available at:
http://www.apple.com/support/security/security_pgp .html

WiFi woes...

[saitoh]

Like someone stated earlier, I hope Apple works on their wireless stuff (or hell, networking in general). Throwing karma into the wind, I installed an airport card, and 10.2.0 all at the same time (hey, save uptime ^_^), but upon booting and waking up, it would no longer do DHCP for ethernet. It would connect if I was plugging the cord in, but not if it was plugged in prior to starting the system or waking up. I was miffed for a month or two and finally gave up and did a complete re-install of the system. Didnt help, so after another month, I removed the card, but it didnt solve the issue...

I've seen a few other people have this problem, but nothing widespread. Hoping someday, it will be solved... Kinda like that Scandanavian ISP thingy.

Note, if you have any hints on this, please let me know, thank you.

Re:SMB Hangs

[trouser]

I've seen this with SMB and AFP (TCP/IP and AppleTalk) shares. I think it's a Carbon lib problem. Finder is, incomprehensibly, written using Carbon and therefore has problems understanding things like Unix file permissions and networks. So we may be waiting for a new Cocoa Finder before this problem goes away.

stalled copying of large files/ directories

[MyDixieWrecked]

I just updated and I'm restoring my mp3 archive from CDs and the copies keep stalling about 200mb into it.

I'm about to try to copy everything from the terminal...

anyone else having any problems like this?

If they would just fix CUPS

[Confessed Geek]

I wish they would fix the problem with printing from Adobe to Linux CUPS queues. It produces a PICT/PS format- PICT w/ embedded PS - data stream that only the OS X cups filter can handle (pictpwtops filter).

Send this to a Linux CUPS broadcast queue and it goes in the bit bucket or starts spewing garbage.

"Just Works" my derriere.
Only Apple could take an open printing system and make it proprietary.

Re:If they would just fix CUPS

[flumignan]

The problem is not Apple's fault. It is not the CUPS people's fault, either. It mainly lies with the application developers of Carbon CFM programs. Here's the short answer:

CUPS 1.1.18 process jobs using filters; when the pictwpstops filter recieves a job, it looks for a Document Structuring Convention (DSC) -- a standard established by Adobe. Adobe themselves do not use that standard on all their applications. That declaration will spell out in the outputted PS what part is in binary and what part is in ascii. The developers at CUPS state that if a program does not follow this convention, their filter will process the job as binary, entirely, and without regard to two other protocols (which I'll describe next.

PS printers receive binary jobs and process them using either BCP or TBCP (or neither). That decision on what protocol to use varies from printer to printer, it even varies on why type of interface the job is received or, I believe, what protocol is used to send the job (PAP versus IPP). Even whether the job is vector-based or raster will change the way the printer chews up the binary.

When your PS printer gets the job, it's getting malformed PS. The simple way around this is to tell your application to send the job NOT as binary (since it likely isn't following the DSC specification). Should the app produce ascii PostScript, the CUPS filters, including the pictwpstops filter (that's essentially Mac OS-specific due to Mac OS 8/9's dependance on PICT for QuickDraw display) will ALWAYS output ascii PS and your printer will be happy.

Your Linux CUPS queue is getting malformed, binary PS and running the pstops filter on it -- but it's still processing junk. Junk in, junk out.

Other than outputting your jobs via ascii from your programs' printing sheet, you should be yelling at the manufactures of various applications for not following the DSC specification. Meanwhile, the CUPS people say that with 1.1.19, the filters will be binary, BCP and TBCP aware; likely, that will mean it will "know" about your printer (perhaps via the PPD, which includes the capabilities of the printer) and output accordingly.

Alternatively, use only Cocoa applications to print; they use Core Graphics PDF to PS (cgpdftops) filter.

Re:Safari is unbelievably fast 10.2.5 :)

[suyashs]

.5 of a second; but it really depends on the cacheing situation, your connection, the site, and if there are java applets or not.... Complex code can also slow it down a little (very little)...

dear iSync team members

[webdev]

There's a new phone on the market called P800 from sonyericsson. It's pretty cool, it does have bluetooth support (as you're aware of since 10.2.4) -but it also has these other applications called Calendar and Messages. You should check these out too. I think these two apps would go great together with iSync.

Update didn't work.

[speechpoet]

My PowerBook's still a WallStreet.

New NIS Client

[orgchartleafnode]

After upgrading to 10.2.5. you can open the Directory Access app and see that it now has an option to configure NIS. Nice.

Fix?

[sulli]

I am still hoping for the following fix:

Mail: Corrects problem in which Mail is REALLY FUCKING SLOW

I can hope, yes?