Apple Mac OS X patch plugs 31 vulnerabilities

[Nomad559]

http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-6139117.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news

Apple Computer on Tuesday released a security update for Mac OS X to repair 31 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day Wi-Fi hijack flaw.

Apple's Security Update 2006-007 includes fixes for flaws in Apple's own code as well as third-party components that ship with the Mac OS X operating system, such as Perl, PHP and OpenSSL. Several of the vulnerabilities could allow full system compromises, according to Apple's security alert.

However, Apple's update does not address all publicly known flaws in the operating system. Over the past few weeks bug hunters, as part of an initiative called the Month of the Kernel Bugs, have published details on several new vulnerabilities in Mac OS X. One of those was tagged "highly critical" by security-monitoring company Secunia.

[William769]

1. Say it isn't so!

:rofl:

[wtmusic]

2. Is that the same Secunia that identified 32 new Windows viruses

in the last two days? Just curious...

http://secunia.com/

[Nomad559]

3. First of all

are you aware of how many patches the OS X needed this year?
It needed far more than Windows XP needed.

What do viruses have to do with software patches?
Viruses are programs written to alter the way a computer operates.

Software patches are needed to repair badly written code.

Do I blame the Apple employees for the need of all these patches?

No, I put the blame on yet another conservative company that doesn't give a shit about their customers or employees.

Apple Is RED

"There is a definite lack of emphasis on customers," said the employee, who holds a senior management position. The employee wrote that there is "a significant fear factor perpetuated of the CEO" by "empire building dinosaurs who operate in antiquated modes and only promote their favorites." The same employee said it's a company policy "not to take notes in meetings," which can make it "quite daunting" to try to operate under such "impossible circumstances."

Meanwhile, a product manager stationed at Apple's home-base in Cupertino sums up Apple as the average conservative company, which works its employees "to the bone" without enough compensation. "When I started it felt like Apple knew my name and what I did," the employee wrote, "but now am nothing more than employee XXX."

:(

[wtmusic]

7. That link is supposed to prove your point?

"For the most part, employees were upbeat on Apple's workplace experience, citing corporate diversity and shared passion for the company's products as some of the pluses.

"It was like working for something very special - the spirit was in everyone of us - the jobs differed from one day to the next and this made and makes it still exciting."

:rofl:

Talk about software patches all you want -- that has had ZERO effect on the consumer, because most patches are trivial in nature and caught before there is a problem. Contrast with Microsoft, which "borrowed" every good idea they ever had (except for MSDOS) and issues patches in response to customers losing their hard drive to viruses...

But I'm not bent on changing anyone's mind--if you want to depend on an unstable operating system and have plenty of reboot time to spare, rock on. :thumbsup:

[Nomad559]

14. link supposed to prove your point?

How does this link disprove my point?
Here are a few remarks from Apple employees.

But the opportunities for advancement were not that great, the employee said.
"There were a lot of communications problems. Micro management to the extreme. I had six different supervisors that did not communicate together and gave me six different answers."

Another employee remarked on the lack of consumer focus in the workplace.
"There is a definite lack of emphasis on customers," said the employee, who holds a senior management position.

The employee wrote that there is "a significant fear factor perpetuated of the CEO" by "empire building dinosaurs who operate in antiquated modes and only promote their favorites." The same employee said it's a company policy "not to take notes in meetings," which can make it "quite daunting" to try to operate under such "impossible circumstances."

Meanwhile, a product manager stationed at Apple's home-base in Cupertino sums up Apple as the average conservative company, which works its employees "to the bone" without enough compensation.

These sentiments were echoed by several employees responding to questions on salary and incentives. While those employees higher up in Apple's corporate hierarchy seemed pleased or content with their pay, a significant number of other employees complained about a lack of bonuses, raises, and stock options. Said one Apple product manager, "$59k a year with a 60 hour work week minimum. No bonuses. No stock options. No cell phone expense. Not what I would consider industry standard."


Do all of these remarks from Apple employees prove to you that Apple Is NOT a RED company?
No ... here are some more facts about the, "Apple Corp", Apple outsources most of the hardware they make to Foxconn Electronics In "China".

Apple has In the past lobbied against state e-waste recycling legislation.

The "Apple Corp" has donated mostly to PePUGlicans.

These are the facts, the "Apple Corp" Is a RED company, and you can choose to Ignore the facts, I really don't care.

But you seem to think that Apple Is a Blue company only because of the positive attitude of the Apple employees, most of which are blue.

That's Bull ... the "Apple Corp" Is a RED company, It always has been, and I suspect It will always be.

But, let me make myself very clear here, as I stated In another thread, I do not support boycotting Apple, If you like Apple products, buy them, If you like Dell products, buy them.

Support The Troops ... Not the President

[Porcupine]

4. So what? Document one succesful viral attack on OSX machines......

that has breached business computers and exposed financial data. Just one?

That happens to hundreds of Windows machines every month. Just saying.

It seems to me that there are regular posts that amount to "GASP...Apple code vulnerable just like Windows." These posts never actually seem to amount to something that results in real-world attacks and vulnerabilities.

You can still run a brand new Mac on the web without worrying about your computer being taken over. You don't have to get special security packages or anything. Try that with a Windows machine.

[William769]

5. The main reason for that is

90% versus 10%. When your speaking about the whole world... just saying.

[Tanner_B.]

17. Nope

The main reason for that is 90% versus 10%. When your speaking about the whole world... just saying.

The reason is that OS X is more difficult to exploit. Market share is irrelevent.

[William769]

18. Wrong again.

Theres no fun in attacking something hardly anyone has. :P

[Nomad559]

19. Actually

Apple's worldwide market share Is only 2.0 percent, the market share In the United States Is at 3.6 percent.

Quote: The reason is that OS X is more difficult to exploit. Market share is irrelevent.
That's bullshit, If that was true, why the need for so MANY patches?

The fact Is, nobody cares to target 2% of the worldwide market.
----------------------------------------------------

Apple's struggles to gain PC market share continue
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1781

But in that time, Apple's share of the worldwide market slipped from 2.2 percent to a mere 2.0 percent, the firm's data shows.

Similarly, Apple's share of the personal computer market in the United States also remains relatively flat at 3.6 percent. Although this figure is down from 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2005, Gartner's data indicates that Apple gained one tenth of a percent in share over the fourth quarter of 2005.

:)

[Tanner_B.]

20. It's obvious

that you have more than a passing interest in the continued dominance of the Windows platform.. Accordingly, your comment, "why the need for so MANY patches" suggests to the uninformed that Macintosh is swamped with vulnerabilities. Just how many is 'MANY?" And in what span of time? And isn't Windows legendary for it's thousands of worms and viruses? And how many of those have gone unaddressed by Microsoft for years, while at the same time there are NO active worms, viruses or Trojan horses for Mac OS X?

It's highly amusing that we see these sensationalist articles about Mac vulnerabilities anytime Microsoft has an important event coming up - in this case the roll-out of Vista.

Give our regards to your homies in Redmond.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nomad559]

25. It's more than obvious

that you have chosen to Ignore the fact that Macs are not Immune from vulnerabilities, the truth Is, Macs are swamped with vulnerabilities.

Just how many is "MANY"?
See for yourself ... Secunia Security Advisories

Apple Downloads

Here are just a few Security Advisories from 2006

Apple Mac OS X has a lot more vulnerabilities than Windows XP?
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/8727

Vulnerability statistics for Mac and Windows
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=165

Apple plugs 20 OS X holes
http://software.silicon.com:80/os/0,39024651,39156900,00.htm

OS X firmware flaw fixed
http://www.scmagazine.com:80/uk/news/article/551526/os+x+firmware+flaw+fixed

More Mac OS X Flaws Identified
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/04/more_mac_os_x_flaws_identified.html

SANS notes sharp increase in Mac OS X flaws
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,111047,00.html

Monster fix for Mac OS X, QuickTime
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1188049,00.html

Mac OS X Patch Misses Mark, Causes Hiccups
http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1895,1963497,00.asp

Apple Updates Fix Five Flaws for Mac OS X
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/06/apple_updates_fix_five_flaws_f_1.html

Apple plugs 26 holes in OS X
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39161168,00.htm

Apple Fixes 15 Flaws, Updates Mac OS X To 10.4.8
http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/193100801

Unpatched bug bites Apple Mac OS X
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/11/22/mac_zero_day_bug

Critical Mac OS X zero-day exploit
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/index.php?p=103

Ancient flaws leave OS X vulnerable?
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Ancient_flaws_leave_OS_X_vulnerable_/0,130061744,139234678,00.htm

Happy Holidays

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. You have a point. Linux has a greater market share, especially if you include servers.

Now, how is the virus history of Linux?

[stormymonday]

6. Windows v Apple Mac OS X = Total Boredom

[wtmusic]

8. Sounds like this thread might not be for you!

Please Feel Free to Try Another!

And Welcome to DU!

:bounce: :toast: :bounce:

[stormymonday]

9. If you want to read something interesting about operating systems

try some articles about the late Dick Pick rather than the endless tedium about whether Windows, OS X, Linux etc etc has the greatest number of flaws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system
http://www.it-director.com/content.php?articleid=11403
http://www.biblio-tech.com/html/databases.html#Nested

The rest of the industry are still struggling to catch up with what that man was doing in the 1970s.

[wtmusic]

10. Interesting

Of course you can download MySQL and PHP for free, install it on your OSX (which ships with Apache), and have a robust integrated SQL database on your home computer which is fully compatible with 90% of the world's webservers. Plus a nifty GUI to boot.

[stormymonday]

11. Apparently, Pick was invited to talk to IBM

about providing the operating system for their new personal computer at about the same time as they spoke to one Bill Gates. Sadly, he was advised not to attend by the Chief Licensing Officer of his company. I think the world of IT might be a very different place today if he had attended.

http://www.ukpua.org/archives/articles/dickruwatching.html

I appreciate not everyone is enamoured of multivalued databases or datatypes

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/07/18/multivalued_datatypes_access/

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the absolute stranglehold that relational databases such as MySQL, Oracle, DB2 etc have had over IT is now under threat because it does not fit well with the Object Orientated programming standards that most developers now use. I think it is a case of watch this space because for the first time in 25 years it is not certain down which road IT is going.

[wtmusic]

12. MySQL fits object-oriented programming like a glove

and v5.1 embraces the use of multi-valued datatypes with SET, which can accomodate multiple choices from a predefined list.

IMO it's really more of a case of developers thinking in row-column mentality. They'll come around, just as they did with the concept of objects taking the place of multi-dimensional arrays.

onedit: the website we're typing on has a MySQL backend, and I'd be very surprised if Elad didn't make extensive use of objects in its design

[stormymonday]

13. Yes but it does this by moving away from the RDBMS principles

set out by Codd which explicitly deprecate this concept. MySQL is not alone in going down this road as Oracle has adopted the concept of nested tables and it appears multi-value datatypes will be appearing in the Microsoft databases in due course. This rather proves my point that the IT world is going into a state of flux. It is fine for people to criticise the row-column mentality of the RDBMS world but the vast majority of the worlds databases still exist in that format. The mismatch between object orientated front end applications and the legacy databases that many are bolted onto is a very real issue. There have been many attempts to bridge the problem but I am not convinced they have been entirely successful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-relational_mapping

[wtmusic]

16. The simplicity of rows and columns is a tremendous asset

in many ways, for unlike objects which are usually app-dependent, data must often be accessible and transferable to different systems...it also allows a lot of flexibility in data retrieval, although it might be slightly faster to retrieve objects right off the disk instead of having to build them spontaneously.

Thanks for the links. Lots of good things to look at. :thumbsup:

[stormymonday]

15. As the relational database 'dinosaurs' love to point out

the principles of object oriented programming were laid down in Simula during the 1960s and predates Codds work on relational databases in the 1970s by a number of years

http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~kristen/FORSKNINGSDOK_MAPPE/F_OO_start.html

As a consequence they take umbrage at the suggestion their systems are antediluvian. To experience their
vitriol at first hand try checking out

http://www.dbdebunk.com/content2006.html

[fredsanford]

22. Do we need to worry if the Mac is onl used for Internets?

Or should we load the fixes nonetheless?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. I'll just say I am posting this from a machine that doesn't need an antivirus. -nt