Software :: Adobe Flash Contributes Largest Number Of Security Patches 10.5.6

Apple has detailed the security issues patched by Mac OS X 10.6.5 and the corresponding Security Update 2010-007 for Mac OS X 10.5, indicating that more than half of the security vulnerabilities in Mac OS X actually affect the Adobe Flash plugin and X11.

Of the 131 security vulnerabilities identified and patched by the latest Mac OS X update (cataloged by their public Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures or CVE ID), 16 are related to X11, an optional install which enables Mac OS X to run apps designed for the Unix X Window specification. Another five are related to features in Mac OS X Server that are missing in the desktop version.

Nine more affect Apple's own QuickTime, one is related to the Mac OS X kernel, one affected Safari, and another 45 were found in various other code, including some that is proprietary to Apple (such as its AFP file server, CoreGraphics and CoreText) and some that is incorporated by Apple from open source projects into its operating system (including the Apache web server, CUPS printing, OpenLDAP, Python, and PHP).

However, the most security vulnerabilities by far are associated with the Adobe Flash plugin, with a whopping 55 issues listed, the "most serious of which may lead to arbitrary code execution," Apple reports in its Apple Product Security update.