Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

Apple Updates OS X to Protect Users Against POODLE Attacks

Security updates released by Apple last week address a series of vulnerabilities, including the recently uncovered SSL 3.0 flaw (CVE-2014-3566) that can be leveraged to obtain potentially sensitive information from encrypted communications.

Security updates released by Apple last week address a series of vulnerabilities, including the recently uncovered SSL 3.0 flaw (CVE-2014-3566) that can be leveraged to obtain potentially sensitive information from encrypted communications.

The attack against SSL 3.0, dubbed Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (POODLE), was described last week by Google researchers. To ensure that its customers are protected against such attacks, Apple released security updates for OS X Mavericks and Mountain Lion. OS X Yosemite 10.10, the version of the operating system launched on October 16, also includes the fix.

“There are known attacks on the confidentiality of SSL 3.0 when a cipher suite uses a block cipher in CBC mode. An attacker could force the use of SSL 3.0, even when the server would support a better TLS version, by blocking TLS 1.0 and higher connection attempts. This issue was addressed by disabling CBC cipher suites when TLS connection attempts fail,” Apple wrote in its advisory.

 OS X Server users can protect themselves against POODLE attacks by updating to versions 2.2.5 and 3.2.2 in which SSL 3.0 support in Web Server, Calendar and Contacts Server, and Remote Administration has been disabled. OS X Server 4.0, which has been introduced alongside Yosemite, includes security fixes for the SSL 3.0 issue and several other flaws affecting BIND, Core Collaboration, the profile manager, and the Mail service.

As far as OS X Yosemite is concerned, more than 40 vulnerabilities have been fixed in components such as the AFP file server, the application sandbox, Bluetooth, IOKit, IOHIDFamily, IOAcceleratorFamily, the kernel, mail, QuickTime and Safari.

The operating system updates released by Apple last week also include the fix for the GNU Bash vulnerability known as ShellShock. The Bash flaw was initially patched by Apple with a standalone fix.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Apple has also released a new version of iTunes. iTunes 12.0.1 contains fixes for a total of 83 memory corruption issues in WebKit identified by various experts this year and in 2013. According to the company, exploitation of the vulnerabilities could lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Understand how to go beyond effectively communicating new security strategies and recommendations.

Register

Join us for an in depth exploration of the critical nature of software and vendor supply chain security issues with a focus on understanding how attacks against identity infrastructure come with major cascading effects.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

Vulnerabilities

A researcher at IOActive discovered that home security systems from SimpliSafe are plagued by a vulnerability that allows tech savvy burglars to remotely disable...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.