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Apple fixes Snow Leopard security issues
by Jaspreet Virk - November 10, 2009 - comments
Along with Mac OS X v.10.6.2, the company also released the 2009-006 update, which addressed 43 specific issues
New York, November 10 -- After several complaints of loss of personal data by Mac OS X Snow Leopard users, Apple has finally fixed the problem.
Since the launch of Snow Leopard in late August, many Mac OS X users have reported that their data was wiped through Apple’s support forums. When they logged into the guest account on Mac, and then logged into their regular account, their accounts got completely reset.
To fix the vulnerability in the operating system, the company released Mac OS X v.10.6.2, an update for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on Monday.
Security updates plug several dozen holes
Apple addressed a number of vulnerabilities, including the problem that had been leading to permanent data loss in the regular accounts, following a guest account login.
Along with Mac OS X v.10.6.2, the company also released the 2009-006 update, which addressed 43 specific issues. It fixed problem in Mac OS X v10.5.8, 10.6, 10.6.1, and Mac OS X Server v10.6 and 10.6.1.
Several updates plugged holes in different components of the operating system, including Quicktime, AFP Client, Adaptive Firewall, Apache, OpenLDAP, and OpenSSH among others.
Most of the vulnerabilities fixed were accompanied with the phrase, “may lead to arbitrary code execution”, meaning that if they were not fixed, it could modify into something dangerous and used by hackers to attack the operating system.
The Monday’s security update was the sixth for Apple and the second for Snow Leopard this year.
Users can download the security updates from Apple’s site or update through software update in Mac OS X. The patch is 157.7MB in size.
Users’ reactions
The latest security updates have stirred up more than a few of Apple’s operating system users who are discussing it out on forums, blogs etc. Majority of the users have welcomed the latest move by Apple.
A user named Gold_Storm_Mac posted his view on cnet news saying, “installed 10.6.2 can log in guest account in peace. glad to see apple being proactive.”
Another user named Lancashire-Witch commented on macobserver.com, “It’s great to have all these problems solved -but the bug that gets Dates in Contacts (eg Birthday) wrong when syncing between Computer, iPhone & MobileMe, if you are located in Time Zone UTC+12…..... is still there, and has been for as long as I can remember. It makes MobileMe virtually useless for syncing Contacts with any “date” data.”
“I’m still pissed off that it’s no longer possible from Software Update to simply download an update of this size. There’s no way I’m going to get two copies of 500Mb, when I could just get it once on my main machine, transport it to my laptop and install it twice,” stated Laurie Fleming on the same forum.