Apple Rolls Out Leopard Security Update 2012-003

After enlisting the help of Russian security firm Kaspersky to strengthen the security of Mac OS X, Apple has released Leopard Security Update 2012-003, a package containing fixes for the company’s aging OS.

Ending at version 10.5.8, Mac OS X Leopard is the predecessor of Snow Leopard. Set years apart from OS X Lion (and even more obsolete when looking at the upcoming OS X Mountain Lion), Leopard was the only Mac OS iteration left unpatched following the discovery of a nasty Flash player flaw.

According to the company headquartered at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif., Leopard Security Update 2012-003 “disables versions of Adobe Flash Player that do not include the latest security updates and provides the option to get the current version from Adobe's website.”

The patch is also included in Safari 5.1.7 for OS X Lion, and Safari 5.1.7 for OS X Snow Leopard. Both disable out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player.

In a knowledge-base article on its Support site, Apple elaborates:

“Out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player do not include the latest security updates and will be disabled to help keep your Mac secure. If Safari 5.1.7 or Leopard Security Update 2012-003 detects an out-of-date version of Flash Player on your system, you will see a dialog informing you that Flash Player has been disabled. The dialog provides the option to go directly to Adobe's website, where you can download and install an updated version of Flash Player.”

Users who need to re-enable an out-of-date version of Flash Player can navigate to the /Library/Internet Plug-Ins (Disabled) folder; drag "Flash Player.plugin" into /Library/Internet Plug-Ins; and (if the browser is running) quit and restart Safari.

Download Leopard Security Update 2012-003 (Free)