Snow Leopard Update Fixes Guest Account Bug
The Mac OS X 10.6.2 update deals with several issues that have cropped up in Snow Leopard since its launch in August, including one that was causing users to be logged out unexpectedly; one that prevented users from opening downloaded files; a glitch that was causing Mail to quit unexpectedly during the set-up of an Exchange Server; and one that was keeping users from logging in as an administrative user.
The 473-megabyte update also fixes security issues affecting Quicktime, Adaptive Firewall, OpenLDAP, and OpenSSH, among others. Apple also released its 10.6.2 update for Snow Leopard Server, which makes it easier to sync Portable Home Directory content and offers better server-side filtering of incoming mail messages and prevention of brute force password attacks.
The guest account bug, which wasn't fixed in Apple's 10.6.1 update, caused data in the user's home folder to be erased once a user logged out and then logged back in. The flaw appears to have had the most significant impact on guest accounts created and enabled before Snow Leopard was installed.
As reported earlier, the 10.6.2 update doesn't run on the Intel Atom processor, a move widely believed to be Apple's effort to crack down on so-called Hackintoshes, or netbooks illegally running OS X with the Atom chip.