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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has issued software updates to fix 31 security holes in various versions of its OS X operating system.
The Mac maker on Tuesday sent the free updates to its users via its online software update service. Consumers can also download the patches directly from Apple's Web site. The patches address critical vulnerabilities, including a WiFi flaw that affects eMac, iBook, iMac, PowerBook G3, PowerBook G4 and Power Mac G4 systems.
Apple released patches for 185 vulnerabilities during 2006, including a couple of large patch cycles that fixed at least 30 problem areas.
"Apple ... tends to receive less media attention than companies such as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) or Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), due to its lower market share," Michael Sutton, a security evangelist with SPI Dynamics, told MacNewsWorld.
Fatal WiFi Flaw
The WiFi flaw was uncovered earlier this year. At issue is a heap buffer overflow that occurs when the Airport wireless driver handles response frames probing.
"An attacker in local proximity may be able to trigger the overflow by sending maliciously crafted information elements in probe responses," the company said in its advisory. The flaw does not affect systems that use the AirPort Extreme card.
Apple also patched four vulnerabilities in the ATS (Apple Type Services) server; the most serious is a stack buffer overflow in font processing that can cause code execution attacks, the company said.
"By carefully crafting a corrupt font file, an attacker can trigger the buffer overflow, which may lead to a crash or arbitrary code execution with system privileges," Apple warned. The company said font files are processed when opened or previewed in Finder.
No Remote Execution
To deal 
with another code execution bug in Finder, the patch stops hackers from executing code remotely even if the target user is just browsing a shared directory.
"By enticing a user to browse a directory containing a maliciously crafted '.DS_Store' file, an attacker may be able to trigger the overflow. This could lead to an application crash or arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running Finder," Apple said it its advisory.
Also patched: four Security Framework flaws; bugs in WebKit, CFNetwork and a ClamAV; and a hole in FTPd that occurs when FTP access is enabled.
A GNUzip bug that occurs when files were uncompressed, an installer vulnerability that could lead to privilege escalation attacks, and multiple holes in OpenSSL, Perl, PPP, Samba, PHP and VPN were also plugged.
Coping With Increased Scrutiny
Reports of Mac-centric vulnerabilities are expected to increase in the coming year, said Sutton, and with that comes industry and media scrutiny.
Apple is not used to the high level of attention that rival Microsoft receives with regard to security flaws, explained Sutton. However, a positive side effect of the heightened media and industry interest is a better product. When holes are widely publicized, fixes come faster.
"Microsoft has not had the luxury of avoiding the media spotlight and has, therefore, been forced to expend financial and human resources to make drastic changes in the way that it approaches security in its products," Sutton said.
"Apple has not yet received this same scrutiny from a security perspective and is, therefore, further behind in their learning curve in handling such issues. As the popularity of Apple products increases, this will start to change," Sutton predicted.
All Eyes on Apple
Adding to the media attention over Apple's security flaws is the fact that its computers have become increasingly popular among security researchers after Apple began shipping systems that run Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) processors. They use Apple laptops because Mac OS X, Linux and Windows can run on a single Mac system.
"There also tend to be more security researchers that are comfortable conducting reverse engineering work on the Intel chipset. This, therefore, opens Apple products to a wider range of skilled security researchers," Sutton concluded.
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