Slashdot Mirror
Apple Mac OS X Update For 17 Vulnerabilities
BSDetector writes "Apple has released fixes for 17 OSX vulnerabilities, ranging from system takeover to denial-of-service attacks. It was the fifth security update released this year. It also marked the first time this year that an operating system security update from Apple did not patch a vulnerability disclosed by the January Month of Apple Bugs project. Today's update pushed Apple's year-to-date patch total to over 100. More than one of the affected flaws were called 'critical' or 'dangerous'."
"From what I've seen, Apple has been quite responsible with fixing found vulnerabilities: turn around times, etc. More-so than that other guy. So, I can't really complain."
Apple's time to patch was about twice as long as Microsoft's in 2006. From the looks of things, they may be working hard on improving that.
Apple has historically been terribly irresponsible with found vulnerabilities. This article says this is the first exploit fixed that hasn't been logged on the MOAB project.
Read up the MOAB. The MOAB project was started by security researchers who decided to release their findings publicly (and not contact Apple beforehand giving them time to fix the vulnerability before it becomes publicly known) because they got mad when Apple outright denied some existing vulnerabilities they found.
You are incorrect. Apple has a terrible track record when it comes to handling vulnerabilities when compared to the other guy. It looks like they are making progress.
MOAB was founded by security researchers who wanted publicity. Among other issues was a bug in OmniWeb, which was never reported to The Omni Group. How would being frustrated at Apple possibly justify that one?
What is it about developing software for Mac OS X that you dislike compared to Linux ?
Are you using Cocoa, Carbon, Java, BSD/POSIX APIs, X Server ?
Are you using X-Code, eclipse, something else ?
I routinely develop software for a variety of Unix systems, and I find Mac OS X just as comfortable and any other Unix. I can't think of many developer tools for Linux that is not also available for Mac OS X (Maybe the IBM/Rational Tools Suite ?). Some of the Mac OS X tools like Interface Builder, Shark, CHUD, and OpenGL Profiler are best of breed.
She must have hit the dialog without realizing it...by default, Apple Software Update won't auto-restart, and I don't think there's any way to even enable that behavior.
By default, this is how it works:
* ASU puts up dialog showing list of installable updates; they're checked by default. Ones with restart required are marked.
* User unchecks items they don't want, presses "Install" or hits Return.
* ASU downloads and installs software. At end, flashes its own icon in the Dock as notification.
* User returns to ASU; if an update requiring restart has been installed, a modal dialog is displayed saying "The new software requires that you restart your computer..." with options "Shut Down" and "Restart." Default is 'Restart,' if user presses Return. (However, the dialog is modal only within the ASU application, you can still switch away from ASU and use the computer normally, and after clicking on it once, ASU no longer bounces in the Dock.)
* If Restart is pressed, the computer will begin the reboot process. I *think* that the process will stop if you have an application open with an unsaved document, but I haven't tested this recently.
Unfortunately, I think users are sometimes conditioned to quickly clicking the default option in any dialog they're presented with, that they sometimes don't realize until 1/4 sec after they hit it, that they just rebooted their computer.
As an aside: it's possible to avoid the reboot either by just leaving ASU in the background indefinitely (pressing Cmd-H 'hides' it so that it doesn't clutter up the UI) or by Force Quitting it, although I doubt that's recommended.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."