Apple Issues Network Time Protocol Security Fix for OS X Users

It's only 1.4MB (late 2013 iMac) so no problems whatsoever! :rolleyes:

1.4? I can install it using my floppy drive.

You have to love the ingenuity / desperation of hackers. Instead of getting a job...

You have to love that in 2014 people still equate hacking to unemployment.

You can install Yosemite on 7-year-old iMacs, hot shot.

Why would I do that? Snow Leopard works, and runs all my software properly. Later OSs add nothing of value to me, and, judging by comments on this board, causes problems that i don't currently have.

Is Snow Leopard impacted?

Yes it is, but apparently Apple no longer cares about the security of their Snow Leopard and Lion customers. You either upgrade your perfectly good software (if you can) or you're on your own.

Well, you could just buy a new Mac, which is what Apple wants you to do anyway.

You can install Yosemite on 7-year-old iMacs, hot shot.

Are you aware that Software Support isn't the same as Hardware Support?

Personally I find it inexcusable that apparently serious security bugs are not being patched in Snow Leopard/Lion. If people are suggesting you can compile it yourself with developer tools… doesn't that just prove Apple is putting some of its less advanced users at risk purely to try and sell them newer computers? I think it's fairly heinous behaviour if so.

As I've said numerous times before, no-one should expect eternal updates in terms of new features etc - that's what new versions of the OS are for, and what should attract users to upgrade. Of course it's unreasonable to expect Apple to develop new features for old OS versions that a few versions old.

However, when bad security vulnerabilities / flaws are discovered that apparently wouldn't take very much effort for Apple to patch, I think it's unconscionable to not provide security patches for machines that are otherwise still perfectly usable today other than having software Apple can't be bothered to support in the very slightest, narrow way. Apart from anything else, we know compromised machines are bad for everyone on the internet.

You have to love the ingenuity / desperation of hackers. Instead of getting a job or writing code that would actually be useful and that people would pay for, they sit around figuring out the most obtuse ways to exploit a computer.

When a stupid game like Flappy Birds can make 20K per day, I'm hard pressed to believe that hacking computers and sending out SPAM is more profitable.

Here are the links:

Yosemite:

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/08/25/zzz031-15311/ka6aog9hkkerhk71sugqqfuzgojq6lwg0s/NTPUpdateYosemite.pkg

Mavericks:

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/40/01/zzz031-15352/4cvorafegnrim82vcazio5r7p9wienvf8c/NTPUpdateMavericks.pkg

Mountain Lion:

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/46/35/zzz031-15347/7mq66ox6wzz189b71kg0zyyj7wza9kr140/NTPUpdateMountainLion.pkg

UPDATE:

Apple have now posted them onto their support website:

Yosemite:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1782

Mavericks:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1783

Mountain Lion:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1781

If you can upgrade to Mavericks or Yosemite and choose not to, that's your own problem, regardless of much better you think Snow Leopard might be. If your Mac is unable to upgrade to either of those, then you do indeed have an old machine that you should either replace, use one of the available methods to install Mavericks or Yosemite, or just deal with the vulnerabilities.

Apple is a for-profit corporation, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they won't spend resources on six and seven year old machines. If you want software support decoupled from hardware support, switch to Windows.

It's little things like this that have been showing people like me, who many, many people depend on for their tech recommendations, and who bought into the Apple thing because they were supposed to be so much better than evil Microsoft, that Apple is now only just incredibly better at lying, also known known as Marketing. I keep what I have now, it all works fine, but Apple gets no more money from me. And by word of mouth, their reputation is going to hell.

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Fine, it's your choice. Don't upgrade your OS ever again. It's entirely your choice. I guess there are some people still using DOS who don't want to be troubled by bothersome new features such as access to the Internet or PNG graphics. Good luck to them if they're happy with what they've got.

Ah yes, ridicule, great argument technique. Interesting it is the technique both most employed, and most effectively employed by governments and corporations in their various mindshare campaigns when faced with troublesome facts or people.

Snow Leopard is approaching being 6 years old...

Here's another option for you: Turn off automatic time synching on Snow Leopard.

Microsoft supports their software for at least a decade.

With their yearly OS release schedule, Apple abandons software support after three years.