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Month of Apple Bugs

Okay so I wanted to pass this on to all of you in case you haven’t heard of it. There are some hackers exposing vulnerabilities regarding bugs with anything Apple. In fact they said the focus is not just Apple – though they are the main focus they mentioned “We’ll be looking over popular OS X applications as well.” They claim to be doing this to help make things more safe – but it’s still worth keeping an eye on. There are a lot of people out there that have nothing better to do with their time than to play malicious games with computer users. Here are some recent articles/information on the web about this topic:

The fact that Mac’s virtually never have viruses/hacks is great but it’s not the only reason most mac owners are so faithfully using them. But I think we all agree that there are so many people that are out to take advantage of situations like these. So you’ve been warned – now go check it out. Fingers crossed that this is all just a bunch of hype that goes no where.

Categories:   general info

Comments

  • Posted: January 5, 2007 05:50

    Chris Anemone

    This is a good thing, in the long run, if Apple chooses to address some of the issues brought up. The fact is OS X is not the secure paradise we Mac users like to believe it is. We've been lucky these past seven years not to have to worry about any viruses—there were 100+ for classic Mac OS—or spyware and only a very very few trojans—anyone wanna see my zipped up folder of Leopard screenshots that requires you to input your admin password? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? OS X, however, is not completely secure. It has many vulnerabilities, especially in it's BSD core. It's BSD core actually has some vulnerabilities in it that date from the beginnings of Unix in the late 60s through early 70s. Luckily for us one has to go through several layers of OS X before getting down to Darwin where these vulnerabilities lie which is why no one seems to have taken advantage of them yet. Hopefully this website will prompt Apple to fix some of these old vulnerabilities as well as the many new ones that have gone unexploited/undiscovered. Already the makers of VLC have released a patch that addresses the vulnerability detailed on the Apple bugs site. As more and more people switch to Mac security is going to become a bigger concern. The last thing the Mac community needs is for some 14 year old script kiddie who just got an iMac for Christmas to be the maker of the first true OS X virus.
    Reply

  • Posted: January 5, 2007 16:39

    Robert

    The Month of Apple bugs is necessary. Apple asked for it by making false claims about thier operating system. See this article http://www.angryfrozenhead.com/articles/Jan2007/TwoCities.html for details
    Reply

  • Posted: January 5, 2007 16:58

    dennis

    I personally have more faith in apples flaws then in microsoft's pattern of imitation. I have no doubt that any problems brought to light by this month of bugs shall be addressed professionally and swiftly by Apple. A month of bugs for apple, we would need a year of bugs for microsoft. either way heres a great quote to remember when dealing with computers. Gerald Weinberg:
    If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
    Reply

  • Posted: January 5, 2007 17:53

    Chris Anemone

    Windows wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is if they didn't insist on backwards compatibility. Every new version of OS X throws out some framework or modifies it in such a way that software built for it when it originally came out is broken. Had MS not insisted on keeping backwards compatibility in Vista, not only would Vista have come out mostly on schedule and with all it's intended features, but it would be infinitely more secure and virus free for a fairly long time. But, Apple can get away with major changes like that; MS can't. They wouldn't be able to sell any copies of Vista until major business apps were rewritten as Windows sells more to corporate customers than anyone. But in a world where major companies still rely on DOS applications MS would be shooting themselves in the foot to remove backwards compatibility.
    Reply

  • Posted: January 5, 2007 21:47

    amandakern

    I'm all for fixing these so called "insecurities" - I think the biggest concern we should all have is those that might decide to play with this knowledge to create havoc for apple users before they have fixes for the problems the do disclose. I'd have to say that many Apple users (to include me) have become complacent with the fact that Apple is very safe in comparison to PC's - so hopefully this keeps those that have an Apple on their toes and better prepares them for the fact that someone might try to take advantage of this disclosure of bugs.
    Reply

  • Posted: January 6, 2007 00:50

    Gong

    its no surprise as apple gain more market shares within the category. Wasn’t one of apple commercials main message is that apple never get virus? I’ve always thought some hackers would see it as a challenge.
    Reply

  • Posted: January 7, 2007 00:56

    Miguel Pagan

    People have always been pointing out security flaws and trying to hack OSX. It has been this way since it was released really. Though, to this date, I cannot recall knowing anyone that has ever had these 'vulnerabilities' become exploited on their particular machine. Apple is pretty quick to patch these things anyways. Look at all the security updates we get.
    Reply