Skip the navigation
News

Apple issues mega-monster security update

'Frighteningly large' release patches nearly 90 bugs in Leopard, Tiger

By Gregg Keizer
March 19, 2008 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Apple Inc. Tuesday issued a record-breaking security update that patched nearly 90 vulnerabilities in both its own code and the third-party applications it bundles with its Tiger and Leopard operating systems.

Security Update 2008-002 plugged 87 holes in the client and server editions of Mac OS X 10.4 and Mac OS 10.5. This single update's total patch count nearly equaled half of all the fixes Apple released in 2007, and easily dwarfed the biggest updates that year, both of which saw 40 or more bugs patched.

"What a dizzy double take," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. in an e-mail. "Right on the heels of an unprecedented giant Safari fix, we now have a frighteningly large set of updates for OSX 10.4.11 and 10.5.2."

Earlier today, Apple updated its Safari browser for both Mac and Windows, patching 13 vulnerabilities.

The day's much larger security roll-up fixed flaws in 30 different applications or operating system components in Mac OS X, from AFP Client and Apache to the Wiki Server and X11, the Mac's version of the X Window System. "Historically, the third-party applications bundled with OS X have made up a decent majority of these updates," said Storms. "Today's release is no different." By Storms' count, 18 of the 30 components or applications patched were Apple's own. An even dozen were the responsible of others.

Some of the vulnerabilities were specific to Leopard, others to Tiger. The Leopard update quashed bugs in AFP Client, Apache, Application Firewall, ClamAV, CUPS, Emacs, Help Viewer, Image Raw, Kerberos, mDNSResponder, OpenSSH, pax archive, PHP, Podcast Producer, Preview, Printing, System Configuration, UDF, Wiki Server and X11.

Several were found only in Server 10.5. The open-source ClamAV antivirus scanner included with Apple's server operating system received patches for nine bugs, for example. "Multiple vulnerabilities exist in ClamAV 0.90.3 provided with Mac OS X Server v10.5 systems, the most serious of which may lead to arbitrary code execution," read Apple's advisory.

In Tiger, meanwhile, AFP Client, AFP Server, Apache, AppKit, CFNetwork, ClamAV, CoreFoundation, CoreServices, CUPS, curl, Emacs, file, Foundation, Help Viewer, Kerberos, libc, notifyd, OpenSSH, PHP, System Configuration and X11 were patched.

"The majority of the more critical updates from today are found in those third-party applications," said Storms. "Point being, we can't blame Apple for all the security issues in OS X."

Unlike other operating system vendors, Apple doesn't rate the vulnerabilities it patches. A large number of the fixes Tuesday, however, were accompanied by Apple phrasing -- "arbitrary code execution" -- that signals the bug could be used by attackers to infect a Mac with malicious code. In others' ranking systems, vulnerabilities like that are typically classified as "critical" threats.

Security Update 2008-002 can be downloaded manually from the Apple site, or installed using Mac OS X's integrated update service. Depending on the version, the update runs between 50MB and 108MB in size.

Read more about Security in Computerworld's Security Topic Center.



Additional Resources
Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
WHITE PAPER
Solving application issues over the WAN requires careful consideration. Based on their independent research, Forrester Consulting offers recommendations on how to tackle application performance issues, insufficient bandwidth and the inability to quickly restore users in a disaster.

Read now.

Security KnowledgeVault
WHITE PAPER
Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All
WHITE PAPER
New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Security White Papers
Overcome Top 7 Admin Challenges of Active Directory
As Active Directory's role in the enterprise has drastically increased, so has the need to secure the data. Gain insight on creating repeatable,...
Insiders Can Ruin Your Company. Take Action.
Did you know that 80 percent of threats to an organization come from the inside? The threat from insiders is often overlooked in...
Top Solutions and Tools to Prevent Devastating Malware
Custom malware frequently goes undetected. According to Forrester Research, the best way to reduce risk of breach is to deploy file integrity monitoring...
X-Ray of the PCI Process-4 Proactive Steps
This white paper from Forrester Research Inc., helps break PCI into understandable components. Security and risk professionals will gain knowledge and insight into...
Identity Governance: The Business Imperatives
This white paper describes the business challenges and opportunities that are driving interest in Identity Governance while discussing considerations your organization should make...
All Security White Papers
Security Webcasts
Live Webcast
Playing Defense: Staying on Top of Your Disaster Recovery Game
When it comes to disaster recovery, rapidly growing data volumes, distributed computing models, and new technologies all combine to present an ever-changing playing...
Introduction to VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5
Traditional disaster recovery solutions are often too expensive, complex and unreliable to meet business requirements. As a result, IT departments are hesitant to...
The Top Ten Secrets to Avoiding SAN Performance Problems
Maintaining peak performance while simultaneously addressing the root cause of SAN errors is challenging. Learn the most common SAN problems and explore new...
Deduplication Without Compromise
Go inside Quantum's scalable, high-performance, multi-protocol new DXi deduplication appliances, designed to make backup much more effective. Discover how the new future-proof DXi6700...
Director of Disk Products Discusses DXi6700
Discover how the new DXi 6700 series of deduplication appliances provide investment protection and a future-proof feature set, all while delivering fast, scalable,...
Playing Defense: Staying on Top of Your Disaster Recovery Game
When it comes to disaster recovery, rapidly growing data volumes, distributed computing models, and new technologies all combine to present an ever-changing playing...
All Security Webcasts
Newsletter Sign-Up

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all newsletters | Privacy Policy
IT Jobs