Apple Unloads Dozens of Fixes for OS X

Apple Computer has released what seems to be one of its larger security updates for Mac OS X, doling out fixes for 44 flaws.

Still, only a handful of the vulnerabilities are of major concern, according to security analysts. The package of fixes was released Monday. "This one is a big update. I don't recall seeing as many updates as we see today," said Thomas Kristensen, Secunia's chief technology officer. By comparison, Apple last May released an update for 20 vulnerabilities and in March distributed an update for a dozen flaws.

But Kristensen noted that, with the new update, only a few of the 44 vulnerabilities are of great concern. He also said that 25 percent of the patches involve older vulnerabilities that have yet to lead to exploit code being developed by attackers. Still, Secunia is rating the overall update as "highly critical." Apple declined to comment on the vulnerabilities and referred all questions to its security update. The flaws affect Apple's Mac OS 10.3.9 and 10.4.2 operating system software and related server software.

View: Apple OS X Security Update 2005-007