ID: IRCNE2011101288
Date: 2011-10-15
Computerworld - Apple has released a massive security update for Mac OS X along with a new version of its OS.
The Mac OS X Security Update 2011-006 addresses more than 70 vulnerabilities in core components, as well as third-party products bundled by default with the OS.
Many of the flaws have the highest severity rating assigned to them and can result in arbitrary code execution through a remote attack vector.
Two security issues were patched in the Mac OS X kernel, one in CoreStorage, two in CoreMedia, while others were in CoreProcesses, CoreFoundation, CFNetwork, and even the application firewall.
With this update Apple also played security catch-up with many third-party software packages that provide important functionality, such as Apache HTTPD, BIND, PHP, Tomcat, Mailmain, Python, or libpng.
QuickTime, a central application in Apple's ecosystem, was also updated in this release to address 11 different vulnerabilities. However, some of them only affect OS X Snow Leopard.
Despite the benefits of the security update, users should carefully weigh whether to install it. That's because, according to some reports, the update can result in serious issues.
Apple's new Mac OS X Lion v10.7.2 contains most of the security patches from Security Update 2011-006. Reports like "After updating to Lion 10.7.2 System now hangs on boot" or "Mac forced me to restart after updating to 10.7.2" started appearing on the Apple support forums.
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