The bug fixes kept coming Monday, as Apple shipped critical security updates for its Mac OS X operating system. The latest security update fixes several bugs in the Mac Operating system, including eight bugs in the recently released Mac OS X 10.5, known as "Leopard." Apple released the security fixes in conjunction with an 10.5.2 update to Leopard, which includes dozens of other updates.
Some of the security flaws are extremely serious, and could be exploited by hackers to run unauthorized software on a victim"s computer, although Apple did not report any incidents of this occurring. The patches include fixes for Safari, Mail, Launch Services, the Mac OS Directory Services, Open Directory and Parental Controls. There are also patches for several Unix components that ship with Apple"s software, including a recently patched flaw in the Samba file-and-print software.
Apple"s patches come a day before Microsoft is set to issue a massive set of updates itself. Last week, the software vendor said it expected to release 12 security updates for a variety of products including critical updates for Windows, Internet Explorer and Office.