Skip the navigation
News

Apple patches 18 Mac vulnerabilities, ships OS X 10.5.8

Fixes flaws in six critical image file bugs hackers could use to snatch Macs

By Gregg Keizer
August 5, 2009 09:43 PM ET

Computerworld - Apple on Wednesday patched 18 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, including half a dozen that could let hackers hijack machines by duping users into viewing malicious image files on the Web.

Security Update 2009-003, which was distributed along with Mac OS X 10.5.8 for Leopard users and delivered separately to Tiger users, plugged holes in components ranging from ColorSync and Dock to the kernel and MobileMe, Apple's for-pay sync and storage service.

But it was the six vulnerabilities in various image file formats that caught the eye of Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security.

"The PNG [Portable Network Graphics] bug is the most interesting," said Storms of the half-dozen image file flaws. "It's a pervasive format that's frequently on Web sites," he added, noting that attackers could trigger the bug simply by getting users to visit malicious sites, a common tactic in the Windows hacker world.

"It's easy enough to host one of these malicious files on [a hacker's] Web site," Storms added.

Apple patched four flaws in the ImageIO component of the Mac's operating system related to its handling of OpenEXR images, a format developed by Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic visual effects studio in 1999 and released to open-source four years later. The sixth image vulnerability, also in ImageIO, could be exploited by malformed Canon RAW photographic files.

Today's security release was Apple's smallest this year by vulnerability count. In May, for example, the California-based computer company quashed 67 bugs, while February's security update patched 55.

Storms saw other oddities this time around. "Usually, we see a lot of Safari or WebKit vulnerabilities, or bugs in a lot of third-party components," he said. "Today, we got neither."

Two of the bugs Apple called out in its advisory affect Safari, but the flaws are not actually found in the browser. And with the exception of one vulnerability in the "bzip2" open-source data-compressor, all of today's bugs were within Apple's own code.

Storms also called attention to the MobileMe vulnerability, which, although not serious, could be used by unscrupulous friends or co-workers to access someone's account. "A logic issue exists in the MobileMe preference pane," Apple said in the advisory. "Signing out of the preference pane does not delete all credentials. A person with access to the local user account may continue to access any other system associated with the MobileMe account which had previously been signed in for that local account."

"This one's important only because MobileMe is such a big application for Apple," argued Storms.

More than half of the vulnerabilities -- 10 of the 18 -- were labeled with Apple's "arbitrary code execution" phrase, meaning the flaws are critical and could be exploited to compromise a Mac. Unlike other vendors, such as Microsoft and Oracle, Apple does not assign a threat ranking to the bugs it discloses.



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