Internet Security and Programming

Apple released updates to fix at least 17 different security holes in its OS X operating system and other software late Thursday, including a patch for the domain name system (DNS) vulnerability that many other affected vendors addressed nearly three weeks ago. Security Update 2008-005 patches a serious flaw in the DNS that could allow hackers to hijack users’ Internet connections or silently redirect them to counterfeit Web sites. Cisco, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and a host of Linux projects pushed out a coordinated fix for the flaw on July 8, when it was first disclosed, and Apple immediately took heat for not releasing its patch then as well. My guess is that Apple planned all along to release its patch this week or early next. Dan Kaminsky, the researcher who discovered the DNS flaw and helped coordinate the release of the patches to fix it, tried to withhold details [...]

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