Apple Issues Security Update to Block Fraudulent Web certificates

Apple on Friday released Security Update 2011-005, which addresses fraudulent Web security certificates issued by are cently-hacked Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar.

The update, available for both Snow Leopard and Lion, offers Mac users protection from sites that could falsely claim to be trustworthy. The breach allowed hackers to issue bogus digital certificates, files that your Web browser uses when you make secure (HTTPS) connections.

The Security Update addresses the issue by removing DigiNotar from your Mac’s list of trusted root certificates and the list of Extended Validation certificate authorities. The update also configures default system trust settings so that DigiNotar’s certificates—including those it issues through other authorities—aren’t trusted.

You can install the Security Update through Software Update, or download the Lion or Snow Leopard updates directly from Apple’s website.

Apple delivers first update for Mac OS X Lion

Apple today issued the first update for OS X Lion, the new operating system it launched four weeks ago.  Mac OS X 10.7.1 comes in two versions for client systems: One for the new MacBook Air and Mac Mini that Apple refreshed last month, another for all other machines running the new operating system. Apple said both updates fix problems users have encountered while playing video in Safari, improves the reliability of Wi-Fi connections, and quashes a bug that silenced audio when using routing data from a Mac via optical or HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) adaptors.

Several MacBook Air- and Mac Mini-specific problems were dealt with the update targeting those new systems, including one that supposedly deals with display flickering on the Air and another that is supposed to boost the speed of data transfers from the SD card slot on the Mini. Users who quickly grabbed 10.7.1 reported different results for other problems that have garnered attention on Apple's support forum. In a very long and popular thread -- viewed over 46,000 times -- with the title "Lion randomly crashes - black screen" some users said that 10.7.1 had eliminated their BSODs (Black Screen of Death) while others said theirs persisted.

What's notable about 10.7.1 is its small size relative to typical Apple updates: 10.7.1 weighed in at just 17.4MB on several iMacs, compared with as much as 453MB for Mac OS X 10.6.8, the update to Snow Leopard Apple shipped in late June. Lion is the first Mac OS X edition that deals out smaller "delta" updates, ones which deliver only changes. The change to delta updates will most affect Mac owners with slow or heavily-metered connections to the Internet.

By shifting to delta updates, Apple is following in the footsteps of its OS rival Microsoft, which has long shipped smaller patches and bug fixes. Microsoft's most recent Patch Tuesday, for instance, included eight updates to Windows XP that added up to 15.9MB worth of downloads. There are apparently no security patches included with the 10.7.1 update.