Dom

In early October Apple released a small series of patches for Mac OS X version 10.2 and later. Most of the fixes in this group blocked possible denial-of-service problems that are, to date, theoretical. For example, one addresses vulnerability in a Unix printing system that might expose passwords to hackers, in uncommon situations.

In the Windows world, no sooner is an OS hole publicized than someone writes a hack to exploit it. Since the last Mac OS X security update was the third in a month, and because some of the holes looked ripe for exploiting, I have to wonder whether the Mac is now attracting more unwanted attention from hackers.

According to Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with research firm Creative Strategies and a longtime Apple watcher, "The vulnerabilities unfortunately are inherent in the Unix world, and Apple's choice to build OS X on a Unix foundation brings with it this risk. Apple's move is more proactive: They are constantly testing the OS to catch any potential security holes before they become an issue. In that sense, they have gone to school on Microsoft's problems in this space and are making sure they leave no stone unturned in their quest to keep the OS as secure as possible."

"At the same time," Bajarin continues, "the media attention about Apple's OS being secure has clearly tweaked the interest of hackers, but as of now we have not seen any serious effort by the hacking community to deliberately expose any holes or attack the OS."

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Source: PCWorld