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Month of Apple bugs planned for January

A patch a day keep the hackers at bay

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Software & Security, 20th December 2006 17:32 GMT

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Security researchers plan to release details of previously undisclosed Mac OS X or Apple application security bugs every day in January. The Month of Apple Bugs project is the brainchild of Kevin Finisterre and the folks behind November's Month of Kernel Bugs (MoKB) project.

The security researchers told the Washington Post that, as with Apple bugs featured during the MoKB project, Apple would receive no advanced notice of the forthcoming security problems. The security researchers hope to use the project to dispel the perception that Apple systems are free of the security bugs that have long plagued Windows users.

"OS X users still think their system is bulletproof, and some people are interested on making it look that way," LMH of the MoKB project told the Washington Post.

Quite what Apple's response to the project might be, or how much will come of it, remains unclear. A planned month of Oracle Database bugs protect due to take place this month was cancelled almost as soon as it was announced. Cesar Cerrudo, founder and chief exec of the Argeniss Security Research Team, is yet to publically explain why he dropped the protect, which was designed to push Oracle into releasing software fixes more quickly.

Back in the present time, Apple posted a Mac OS X security update on Tuesday (2006-008) which fixes a security bug that meant that whatever appeared on a users' web cam could be uploaded onto a remote server. Ooh er, Missus. ®

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