Critical OSX Vulnerability Discovered

VNUnet has reported that a security researcher, called LMH at the Month of Kernel Bugs website, has published a “proof of concept” code for a security vulnerability which affects Apple’s OS X operating system. The code published exposes vulnerability in the software that Apple uses to run its .dmg disk image files, which are an archival method similar to ISO or zip for Windows. The exploit can easily be executed in Apple’s Safari web browser through a specially crafted .dmg file that is launched when a user visits a web page.

Noted security firm Secunia has verified this exploit as genuine and in fact has given its rating of “highly critical”, its second-highest threat level.

Currently the only way this threat can be mitigated in Safari is by disabling a setting in the browser’s preference panel that reads, “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading.” Disabling the setting will prevent .dmg files, images, movies, and pdf files from automatically opening after they have been downloaded.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?