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Month Of Apple Bugs: January 2007 [Updated]

Tuesday December 19, 2006 12:31 pm PST by longofest
Picking off where the Month of Kernel Bugs left off, security researcher "LMH" and his team is reportedly set to launch another month-long security-hole finding project, this time targeting only Apple's products. According to the Washington Post, the Month of Apple Bugs will be January 2007, where each day will feature a previously undocumented security hole in Apple's OS X operating system or in Apple applications that run on top of it.

LMH said that while his upcoming project had the potential to at least temporarily make security more tenuous for the average Mac user, he believes that in the long run the project will improve OS X security.


For the Month of Kernel Bugs, software vendors were not given prior warning before vulnerabilities were released, a practice that has ruffled a few feathers in the industry. According to the Post, the Month of Apple Bugs will run similarly, as Apple will not be given advance notice of the bugs.

It should be interesting to see whether Apple does anything to try and scuttle this pending project. In November, a researcher who focuses most of his attention on bugs in database giant Oracle's software announced his intention to launch a "Week of Oracle Database Bugs" project during the first week of December. The researcher abruptly canceled the project shortly after the initial announcement, without offering any explanation.


You can read MacRumors' interview with LMH regarding the Month of Kernel bugs here.

Update: IDG/MacWorld provides additional information.

Apple enthusiasts and security researchers have been at odds since last August, when David Maynor and Jon Ellch claimed to have discovered a flaw that affected Apples wireless device drivers. They played a video at the Black Hat conference demonstrating how this flaw could be used to run unauthorized code on a MacBook. However, their claims have been slammed because the demonstration used a third-party wireless card rather than the one that ships with the MacBook, and because the two hackers still have not published the code used in their attack.

LMH said the Apple communitys negative response to Maynor and Ellchs claims played a role in the decision to launch the Month of Apple bugs.

I was shocked with the reaction of some so-called Apple fans, he said. I cant understand why some people react badly to disclosure of issues in their system of choice. That helps to improve its security."



However, Apple doesn't seem to mind the effort. An Apple spokesman simply replied "We always welcome feedback on how to improve security on the Mac."

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