Apple Computer on Aug. 9 issued two security patches for its new Mac Pro, the Intel-based desktop that had just been unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The two patches fix two serious code execution vulnerabilities in the Mac Pro.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker issued the security update for the Mac Pro and the Mac OS X Server v10.4.7.
“Security Update 2006-004 is recommended for all Mac Pro systems running Mac OS X v10.4.7 (build 8K1079), and systems running Mac OS X Server v10.4.7 (Universal), and improves the security of the following components: ImageIO, OpenSSH,” the company advises on its Web site.
The more serious of the two security flaws involves ImageIO, and the company warns users that viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image could lead to an application crash or possibly arbitrary code execution.
Apple said that buffer overflows were found in TIFF tag handling (CVE-2006-3459, CVE-2006-3465), the TIFF PixarLog decoder (CVE-2006-3461), and the TIFF NeXT RLE decoder (CVE-2006-3462).
The second security patch fixes a remote login flaw that could allow attackers to cause denial-of-service conditions or determine whether an account exists.
“Attempting to log in to an OpenSSH server (Remote Login) using a nonexistent account causes the authentication process to hang. An attacker can exploit this behavior to detect the existence of a particular account. A large number of such attempts may lead to a denial of service,” the company said.
These two new security patches come after the company issued a mega patch earlier on Aug. 1.
In that patch, Apple fixed 26 security flaws in different versions of the Mac OS X. The Mac Pro was shipped with all but the two of the patches that were included on Aug. 1.
On June 28, Apple also released a number of security patches for the Mac OS X that could have allowed hackers to take control of computers running the software.