Apple Released Shellshock Patches for OS X X 10.9, 10.8, and 10.7
Apple have released patches for OS X 10.9, 10.8, and 10.7 to resolve the Bash vulnerability known as Shellshock. The OS X Bash Update 1.0 is available for Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks. It also covers the OS X Lion Server v10.7.5 as well.
The Bash vulnerability relates to the Bash command line program which it was discovered contained security vulnerabilities that allow for a hacker to issue commands remotely and completely take over a computer system or web server.
The Bash command line is included as a component in numerous Linux-based operating systems and devices, as well as with Mac OS X which is actually a Linux-based system as well and used many of the same fundamental structures as the open-source Linux project does.
Bash Command Line Updated
Bash itself had to be updated not once, but twice, in order to fully resolve the problem with the package. The single developer responsible for the Bash command line component across all Linux systems posted on Twitter that the fix had already been sent to Apple a while ago and the maker of iPhones and iPads had so far failed to provide an updated patch for users of its own Mac OS X operating system. Well now they have.
Other Mac Operating Systems
The upcoming OS X Yosemite with its public beta and developer builds has not been patched for the vulnerability. However, Apple have commented that future builds of the latest version of OS X in development would be patched appropriately.
iOS versions are believed to be safe from these issues, as well as jail-broken iOS versions as well.
Software Update
The OS X update via the Software Update option is presently being updated so that this patch is included with various OS X and OS X Server editions. Should it be found that the Software Update still does not offer the Bash update 1.0 then the update can be performed manually instead to resolve the vulnerability.
support.apple.com/kb/HT6495
The exploit is already being used in the wild to gain access to systems so it is important to patch respective OS X and OS X Server operating system editions as soon as possible. We covered more about the issue of Shellshock in a previous article.
