Apple Releases Mega-Fix For Mac OS X, Patches 43 Vulnerabilities

Apple, which like other major vendors such as Microsoft, patches its software monthly, updated a long list of components and technologies within Mac OS X, ranging from the Safari Web browser to the short-range wireless Bluetooth.

Although Apple doesn't assign criticality ratings to its patch updates, as does Microsoft, Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia ranked the fixes for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and 10.4.2 as "highly critical," its second-highest threat level.

The flaws include cross-site scripting, system access, denial-of-service, data exposure, and data manipulation vulnerabilities. All told, the fixes include patches for a staggering 43 bugs.

The security advisory accompanying the updates has been posted on the Apple support site, with the fixes retrievable manually from the Apple Downloads site or using the operating systems' internal Software Update mechanism.

Separate update files are available for the client and server versions of Mac OS X 10.3.9 and 10.4.2.

Apple's newest operating system, Mac OS X 10.4 -- dubbed Tiger -- has faced security fixes each month since its April 2005, release.