14 DAY TRIAL // New versions of Apple’s Safari web browser are available for download to Mac and Windows PC users containing patches for a handful of security holes.
According to the Mac maker, “This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes the latest security updates.”
Specifically, two WebKit vulnerabilities affect Safari users running Mac OS X v10.5.8, Mac OS X Server v10.5.8, Mac OS X v10.6.5 or later, Mac OS X Server v10.6.5 or later, Windows 7, Vista, or XP SP2 or later.
Discovered and reported by Vincenzo Iozzo, Willem Pinckaers, and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann working with TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative, the first one (CVE-2011-1290) is described as follows:
“An integer overflow issue existed in the handling of nodesets. Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.”
The second vulnerability (CVE-2011-1344) also involves visiting a maliciously crafted website. This was reportedly caused by “a use after free issue” that existed in the handling of text nodes.
Apple’s Safari 5.0.5 security advisory also mentions that several fraudulent SSL certificates were issued by a Comodo affiliate registration authority.
“This may allow a man-in-the-middle attacker to redirect connections and intercept user credentials or other sensitive information,” the Mac maker says.
Apple explains that its web browser relies on the certificate store of the host operating system to determine if an SSL server certificate is to be trusted.
In that respect, this issue was addressed with Security Update 2011-002 for Macintosh customers, whereas Windows users do not get this patch in their version of Safari 5.0.5, since “applying the update described in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2524375 will cause Safari to regard these certificates as untrusted.”