Apple releases OS X 10.7.4, patches plain text password bug

[Shawn Knight]

Apple has released a minor update to OS X Lion that patches a security concern that was brought to the general public’s attention earlier this week. OS X 10.7.4 also includes an updated version of Safari that is said to be more stable and includes a feature that checks to see if users have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed.

The security issue in question stored user’s passwords in a plain text log file that was accessible simply with administrator rights. It seems that the glitch happened specifically to users that had Snow Leopard installed and used the FileVault encryption option then later upgraded to OS X Lion but didn’t additionally upgrade to FileVault 2.

As we noted in our previous coverage of the security flaw, the issue was originally brought up just after Lion was released back in February. A forum member by the name of “tarwinator” discovered the bug but nobody replied to his post in the Apple support forum until just recently. As such, it only took Apple a handful of days to release a fix once they were made aware of the issue.

OS X Lion users are encouraged to download the latest update through the Software Update section. For your convenience, a full list of changes can be found below.

• Resolve an issue in which the "Reopen windows when logging back in" setting is always enabled.
• Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards.
• Addresses permission issues that may be caused if you use the Get Info inspector function "Apply to enclosed items..." on your home directory.
• Improve Internet sharing of PPPoE connections.
• Improve using a proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file.
• Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to an SMB server.
• Improve printing to an SMB print queue.
• Improve performance when connecting to a WebDAV server.
• Enable automatic login for NIS accounts.
• Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
• Improve the reliability of binding and logging into Active Directory accounts.
• The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes Safari 5.1.6, which contains stability improvements.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/48532-apple-releases-os-x-1074-patches-plain-text-password-bug.html

 

[davislane1]

"Resolve an issue in which the "Reopen windows when logging back in" setting is always enabled."

That only took a year.

 

[SNGX1275]

Everyone is bitching about how long it took. Didn't seem like a big deal to me, I liked things opening back up to how it was before the restart. I never tried to turn it off, perhaps turning it off didn't work? because otherwise how was this even an issue? I also didn't like the 'natural scrolling' when Lion came out, but I switched it back to how I was used to and it stayed..

 

[davislane1]

Nope. If you tried to turn it off it just turned itself back on next time the OS loaded. Initially, it wasn't that big of a deal. But over the course of a year it became an extremely aggravating issue for me. Typically, I have several different applications open with several corresponding windows running along side Parallels, eating up all of my system resources. If I restart or shutdown without making sure I've unchecked the reopen box, I'm stuck with a 5-10 minute start up. If I close an application without manually closing each and every window first, the next time I start the app (either directly or by opening a file) I get a barrage of windows from the previous session (which, due to disk encryption, adds minutes to a process that should take seconds). In situations where I have to do an emergency shut down, this is a huge problem. As such, it baffles me as to why it took them a year to fix something so basic. Not to mention something that was advertised as a great new feature when they rolled out Lion last year.

 

[NTAPRO]

Everyone is bitching about how long it took. Didn't seem like a big deal to me, I liked things opening back up to how it was before the restart. I never tried to turn it off, perhaps turning it off didn't work? because otherwise how was this even an issue? I also didn't like the 'natural scrolling' when Lion came out, but I switched it back to how I was used to and it stayed..

I wonder if windows had that at some point. I would love that lol

 

[SNGX1275]

Oh, ok davislane1, I understand the outrage then. If you tell it not to and it reverts every restart, that is a problem. I do sometimes dislike when I command quit a program with a window open (happens all the time with Preview) and then the next time I open a pdf, Preview also opens my old thing. But I guess its just a matter of time to relearn the command w part, I have 8 gigs of RAM, keeping the App open without anything displaying shouldn't use much RAM. Old habits though...

Speaking of which, how is Parallels working out for you? I run 7 in VirtualBox, and it is absolutely friggin horrible. When I first set it up it was ok, or thats how I remember it. But now, it REALLY slows down each system, 10 second hangs aren't uncommon, 5 second hangs are frequent. I've given 7 4 gigs of RAM to play with (leaving Lion with 4), it should be fine that way, but it isn't. I suspect I'm missing some setting in VirtualBox.

 

[davislane1]

I really don't have any complaints about it. I run Windows 7 with few problems with 4gigs of RAM allocated to the virtual system. Win7 runs just as smoothly as it does on a regular PC (I'm on a 2010 MBP) so long as I don't have the other 4 gigs of RAM tied up in OSX. When that other RAM is tied up I'll occasionally get an error saying it's unable to write to memory, but typically only on shutdown. I can't speak for it's performance when using a wide range of software though, as I only run Win7 to use Tradestation and occasionally STELLA. The Win8 preview also seems to work very well on Parallels since the most recent patch.

 

[SNGX1275]

I do very little with my Windows in VBox and its still horrible.