back to article What took you so long Apple? 26 remote exec bugs die in OS X Safari

Apple has fixed 27 vulnerabilities in its Safari web browser for OS X computers, 18 of which were uncovered by Google's Chrome Security Team. All but one of the flaws allow miscreants to execute arbitrary code on victims' computers. The iPhone giant said its Safari 7.0.3 and 6.1.3 update will close the holes, which were found …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. -tim
    FAIL

    Yet no updates for many working apples

    Once these patches are studied, many older macs will have no security as they aren't supported by any major browser. There are plenty of PPC machines stuck on 10.4 can't run an updated version of Safari, Chrome or Firefox and even 10.5 doesn't have any real options. For some odd reason there are newer version of Safari for Windows XP than there are for some of Apple's own much newer hardware.

    1. rvt

      Re: Yet no updates for many working apples

      It was released 9 years ago, and last update was 6 years ago. Tim, stop complaining!

      That XP is still maintained is not because MS wanted it, but because MS was stupid enough to release vista with it's new driver architecture that nobody supported, so customers where forced to stick to XP, it really not comparable with the lifecycle of OS/X.

      1. Alan W. Rateliff, II

        Re: Yet no updates for many working apples

        I thought Apple pulled Safari for Windows back in version 5, anyway?

        Microsoft's failure with Vista in regard to drivers wasn't necessarily the driver model not being supported (vendors don't really have a choice in that matter,) but that Microsoft kept letting the release date slip so few vendors were willing to invest in drivers for the release. ISTR reading that a lot of the native Vista drivers in the RTM release were Vista-wrapped XP drivers.

        Later on I found that a lot of x64 drivers were interchangeable between XP x64 and Vista x64. And so far as that goes, even Windows 7 has limited support for some XP video drivers, which allows older systems (laptops running 845s, etc.) to have at least functional video which doesn't prevent the system from going to sleep. Just no Aero. Darn.

        Anyway, yes, XP is a cooked goose. Not that it isn't a capable stable operating system in its current form, but in my experience Windows 7 is a much more capable (and compatible) OS on all hardware I throw at it. I appreciate there are some instances where moving to 7 is impossible -- Trevor Pott lamented in an article today about a CNC machine, and I have seen a couple of old plotters running an XP-based controller.

        I see this a similar to back in the mass movement to 2000 and XP with older systems which could not run anything newer than Windows 98 or NT. Eventually those systems were replaced as they broke down beyond repair or newer replacements were offered off-lease or otherwise less expensively, but in the meantime special policies and rules were put into place for those machines. Granted, the threatscape has changed drastically since then, so more special provisions need to be taken.

        Heck, if the coming Windows 8.1 update does indeed fix up the UI, it may wind up installed on my six year-old Latitude D430.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Yet no updates for many working apples @ XP is a cooked goose

          Not really the place for it but I increasingly feel the need to say, booting between Windows XP, 7, and 8.1 (all 64-bit) I really am becoming aware of the hardware limitations of XP! Switching between XP and 7 it was just 'different', but now I'm so aware of what a complete waste of time it is on a multi-core system.

          Safari? Either Apple write it to bog down Windows in the expectation some people will think Windows is the problem - or Microsoft code Windows to do the same to Apple software.

          Bonjour!

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Yet no updates for many working apples

      No update for Intel users stuck on Lion either.

    3. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Yet no updates for many working apples

      It was announced a long time ago that support for PPC was being dropped.

      Not supporting Snow Leopard and Lion on Intel, especially as Lion is the end of the line for many MacMinis because Apple can't be bothered recompiling the graphics driver, is more alarming.

      OTOH Safari users obviously don't need to worry about security. Presumably because they're too cool? Can't remember the last time I fired Safari up.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Yet no updates for many working apples

        No update here and I'm on Mountain Lion. For some reason Safari is stuck on 6.0.5 which was from June last year. Not that I use it, but something else might use the WebKit engine.

        But Apple have never been that good at security updates, they even disclose vulnerabilities as they are found on their website but wait ages to package up all the updates together to maintain the illusion that it hardly ever needs security updates.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like