Apple Patches 26 Mac Bugs

Apple Computer on Tuesday released a security update that patched 26 vulnerabilities in the Mac OS X operating system and its bundled applications.

Although Apple doesn't rank its fixes as does Microsoft, 17 of the flaws could allow an attacker to execute code remotely, a condition generally marked as "critical" by other operating system vendors.

According to the bulletin that accompanied the 2006-004 update, seven of the bugs hit the "ImageIO" module, four affected AFP Server, two impacted the "dyld" and "gunzip" components, and the remainder were spread among Mac OS X parts that ranged from "fetchmail" to "telnet." A non-vulnerability update to Bluetooth which increased the auto-generated passkey of the setup assistant from six to eight characters was also included.

Separate security updates can be downloaded for Mac OS X 10.3.9 (client or server) and Mac OS X 10.4.7 (client) for PowerPC- and Intel-based machines from the Apple support site. Users can also retrieve the patches using their Macs' built-in software update tool.

The last security update to Apple's operating system was issued in May when 43 flaws were fixed.