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Apple Mac OS flaw

Date: February 22, 2006
Source: macworld.com


Security firm Secunia on Tuesday documented a possible exploit in Apple’s Safari Web browser that the company describes as “extremely critical.” Secunia calls the exploit Mac OS X “__MACOSX” ZIP Archive Shell Script Execution, and advises Mac users to take simple action to avoid the problem. Apple confirmed it’s working on a fix.

A preference setting in the Safari Web browser can lead to the execution of a malicious shell script, renamed to a “safe” extension in a ZIP archive, according to the security alert.

That preference allows the Mac to automatically open “safe” files after downloading them. So-called safe files include movies, pictures, sounds, PDF and text documents, disk images and other archives.

If a shell script is renamed to appear as a “safe” extension to Safari, systems that have this preference turned on can automatically execute the script — and this can be exploited by someone with malicious intentions, according to Secunia.

“Apple takes security very seriously,” said an Apple spokesman. “We’re working on a fix so that this doesn’t become something that could affect customers. Apple always advises Mac users to only accept files from vendors and Web sites that they know and trust.”
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