14 DAY TRIAL // Soon after select Apple developers received test build 10B503 of Snow Leopard, it was revealed that Apple was addressing a flash vulnerability that shipped with the OS. The news comes on the heels of reports saying that Snow Leopard delivered an old version of flash that was prone to hacker attacks.
Calling it “a significant step from the shipping 10A403,” World of Apple revealed last week that Build 10B503 “weighs in at a meagre 71.5MB and features just a handful of changes, affecting connectivity issues with 3G modems, difficulty removing items from the Dock and unresponsive copies of Motion 4.” Here are the complete seed notes for the build in question:
The 10.6.1 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes for:
- compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems; - an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly; - some printer compatibility drivers not appearing properly in the add printer browser; - an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock; - instances where automatic account setup in Mail might not work; - an issue where pressing cmd-opt-t in Mail brings up the special characters menu instead of moving a message; - Motion 4 becoming unresponsive.
In the meanwhile, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, reported that, “Mac users are not informed that Snow Leopard has downgraded their version of Flash without permission and that they are now exposed to a raft of potential attacks and exploits [that have targeted] Adobe's software in recent months. Adobe is the 'new Microsoft' when it comes to security vulnerabilities, with hackers targeting their software looking for vulnerabilities to exploit.”
With Build 10B503 now tested thoroughly by developers, the software is said to have updated Adobe Flash to version 10.0.32.18, according to MacRumors.