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Yesterday, it was revealed that security researchers from Red Hat uncovered a major exploit in the "Bash" command shell found in OS X and Linux. Named "Shellshock" by security experts, the exploit allows hackers to gain access to web connected devices and services through the use of malicious code.
Now, an Apple spokesperson (via iMore) has commented on the matter, stating that the majority of OS X users are safe from the exploits and that the company is working to provide a software update for advanced UNIX users:
The vast majority of OS X users are not at risk to recently reported bash vulnerabilities," an Apple spokesperson told iMore. "Bash, a UNIX command shell and language included in OS X, has a weakness that could allow unauthorized users to remotely gain control of vulnerable systems. With OS X, systems are safe by default and not exposed to remote exploits of bash unless users configure advanced UNIX services. We are working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced UNIX users.
The exploit was called "as big as Heartbleed" by security researcher Robert Graham, who was referring to a flaw discovered in the popular open-source software OpenSSL that affected 66% of the Internet earlier this year. Apple eventually announced that Heartbleed did not affect its software or key services, and also released updates for AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule. It is likely that a fix for the Bash exploit will arrive relatively soon for users.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Might as well include this with the Yosemite update.
Even after Yosemite will be released prior major versions of OS X like Mavericks are still in active support, especially for security patches.If you think that holding this sort of an update for 3-4 weeks when a patch is available is acceptable I think your expectations are a little low.
Update needs to be shipped asap. End of story.
Glassed Silver:mac
I really hope they release an Update for Lion forwards. A lot of users on White MacBooks were prematurely left behind with Lion because Apple couldn't be bothered to rewrite the graphics driver.
Also there are a lot of people who won't want to update to Yosemite, so an update for 10.7,10.8,10.9 and 10.10 will hopefully ship :)
I'd rather they fix it for ML and Mav now.
And Lion!!!
All of you. Spare a thought for those loyal Mac users still running Snow Leopard.
I'm forced to keep my 2006 white, matte-screen iMac because Apple won't make anti-glare screen iMacs anymore. While the current iMacs have less glare, you can still use it as a mirror.
Allowing remote access to bash is vulnerable by definition, it's not a bug but a feature.
Not necessarily; tcsh, ash, zsh, and ksh don't have this issue, and they are just as accessible remotely.
IIRC, the DHCP server can set those, let alone run scripts as soon as it successfully allocates an IP address to a client. So if running as a server, it could possibly affect it. It definitely does in Linux. I haven't set up dhcp server on my MBA, nor do I intend to, but the situation could still exist, especially if someone rolls their own.It doesn't look like dhcp is affected on OS X btw, you need a service that sets environment variables from user input.
typical online media always blowing things out of proportion
I don't think you understand the magnitude of this vulnerability. EVERY version of Unix or unix-like operating system that uses bash is vulnerable: Linux, Solaris, OS X, Next, Ultrix, SunOS, OSF/1, AIX, HP/UX, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Irix are all included. If you wanted to stretch it, Windows is also vulnerable through Cygwin. That sure as hell isn't the media blowing it out of proportion, especially if nearly every service a machine could run uses these as its underlying OS.The magnitude of this is far more reaching than you realize.
BL.
Everything now a days gets blown out of proportion. I remember all the y2k crap and it came and nothing happened.
The reason "nothing happened" is in no small part due to all the work that was done to prepare.the sky isn't falling?
This is just a media blitz against Apple.
I've used UNIX for over 30 years.
If you don't know what UNIX is, you're most likely not at risk at all.
If you like to tweak you OS with non-Apple configurations, you might be slightly at risk.
If you're a bonehead, you're at risk.
This is blown way out of proportion. Some poster say Apple needs to patch this immediately, B.S., 99.99999% of Apple users will never have an issue. However, if you are running Linux/Unix servers, you might want to watch this more closely.