Mac OS X Panther Updated to 10.3.4 Apple this week released a minor update to Mac OS X Panther. The upgrade brings OS X up to 10.3.4, and is a recommended update for all Panther users. 10.3.4 offers improved reliability and enhanced functionality.
Areas of that see changes include: printing and faxing, Finder, iPod and peripheral devices, networking and .Mac, Mail and Address Book, as well as security. Apple has also included new graphics drivers.
A detailed list of fixes is available at Apple's support Web site.
Future updates to OS X will not be turned over as rapidly as in months past, according to Apple Chief Software Technology Officer Avie Tevanian.
The next milestone for OS X is code-named "Tiger." No details are available at this time, although Apple has announced that CEO Steve Jobs will kick off the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 28 with a preview of the operating system.
The 10.3.4 update is available via Panther's Software Update and as a standalone download. A full install is available for customers who have not updated the operating system since the initial 10.3 release.
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Mac OS X still vulnerable, says security firmApple Computer Inc's Mac OS X operating system remains vulnerable to attacks by hackers, even after the Mac computer maker issued a software update to fix the problem, security firm Secunia said in an updated warning issued last Tuesday.
Niels Rasmussen, chief executive of Denmark-based Secunia, said that while Apple patched one of the vulnerabilities in its Mac OS X operating system, it did not address what is known as a disk URI vulnerability, which could allows malicious websites to silently place code on a user's system.
"Mac users are left just as vulnerable as they were last week," Rasmussen said in a telephone interview last Tuesday. "They (Apple) have dealt with one of the vulnerabilities in the correct way but with the other one they have not."
Apple did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The patched vulnerability, which Apple called "theoretical," exists in an application used to get help while browsing the Web and could expose users to malicious code.
The lack of a more detailed explanation from Apple could leave it facing some of the same criticisms Microsoft Corp once endured over its response to its own software security holes before it buckled down and made security a public and company-wide mandate, experts said.
"From the very beginning Apple has downplayed this issue," said Rasmussen.
Part of Apple's relative invulnerability to viruses until now is because of its small share of the personal computer market -- less than 5%.
That has made it a less attractive target for virus writers and attackers, experts have said.
"You could clearly fault Apple from the view that the second a vulnerability appears you make it known," said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at industry research firm Creative Strategies.
"But there are times when the nature of the vulnerability is such that it may not be prudent to make it known immediately."
Apple's patch is available on its website at www.apple.com/support/downloads.
Microsoft's rival Windows operating system, because of its dominant market share, has long been plagued by worms, viruses, trojan horses, and other security threats.
But the company, which at first was criticised for being slow to warn customers and provide patches, now routinely discloses vulnerabilities and aggressively encourages users to update the Windows software with free patches when needed.
"It seems like Apple wants to learn these lessons like other huge vendors have learned them," Rasmussen said.
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