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Snow Leopard Server Arriving Friday

by on 24. Aug, 2009 in General

It’s official, Apple has announced that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server will be available this Friday, August 28th. Pricing on Unlimited-Client is now $499 and 10-Client appears to have gone the way of the Dodo.

Now that the ship-date has been set, you won’t be able to get it free with a new enrollment to the Apple Maintenance Program for Mac OS X Server, as mentioned regarding pre-ordering, but if you already have an AMP enrollment then you should get the upgrade shipped to you. Of course, if you purchased a qualifying Xserve on or after June 8th then you can get it for $9.95 via the Up-to-Date Program.

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Security Update 2009-004 Released

by on 13. Aug, 2009 in General, Security, Software Update

Apple released Security Update 2009-004 yesterday to fix an issue with the DNS Service:

By sending a maliciously crafted update message to the BIND DNS server, a remote attacker may be able to interrupt the BIND service. The issue affects servers which are masters for one or more zones, regardless of whether they accept updates[...] This update addresses the issue by properly rejecting messages with a record of type ‘ANY’ where an assertion would previously have been raised.

BIND is disabled by default in Mac OS X & Server, but if you’ve got the DNS Service enabled you’ll want to apply this update. Grab it for Leopard or Tiger Server (Universal) or pick it up via Software Update. It’s also available for Mac OS X client.

[Via Topicdesk]

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mailbfr 1.0.5 Released

by on 11. Aug, 2009 in Software Update


Another small fix to Topicdesk.com‘s excellent mailbfr (Mail Backup/Fix/Restore) utility:

Bug fix to correct start/stop behaviour in 10.3.

I don’t see this one as necessary unless you’re still running Panther Server.

[Via Twitter]

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Pre-order Snow Leopard Server

by on 10. Aug, 2009 in General

Amazon has Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Server, which is set to ship sometime in September, available for pre-order for $499.

Of course, there are actually three ways to get Snow Leopard Server:

* – AMP itself costs either $499 or $999 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server 10-Client or Unlimited Client enrollments, respectively, but provides all OS updates (including major updates such as Snow Leopard Server) for 36 months.

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Mac OS X Server 10.5.8 & Security Update 2009-003 Released

by on 06. Aug, 2009 in General, Security

Apple has the following updates for Mac OS X Server:

Mac OS X Server 10.5.8 Updater

This update includes the following improvements:

  • Reliability of AFP for file services and Time Machine backups
  • Propagating file system permissions
  • Maintaining history of user’s previous passwords
  • Ensuring consistent VPN throughput regardless of load
  • Spotlight indexing and memory consumption

Further details available in this knowledge base article. Full and Combo updaters are available.

Security Update 2009-003

This Security Update is for Mac OS X  Server 10.4.11 and coincides with the security updates found in Mac OS X Server 10.5.8. Full details are available in this knowledge base article.

While both PowerPC & Intel-specific updaters are also available, we’re linking to Security Update 2009-003 (Server Tiger Universal).

Let us know how you fare with either of these updates.

Update: Topicdesk has noted in their Newsletters and on Twitter that these updates can overwrite files related to custom installations of Apache, PHP, and GD, esp. those garnered through many of their tutorials. Performing the custom installation again after applying one of the aforementioned updates should do the trick.

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mailbfr 1.0.4 Released

by on 27. Jul, 2009 in Software Update

Topicdesk.com has updated their excellent mailbfr tool to version 1.0.4. mailbfr is a utility script for backing up, fixing, and restoring (hence the name) the Mail service on Mac OS X Panther/Tiger/Leopard Server.

This update includes the following change (via the changelog):

Minor bug fix that would prevent restore of mailman configuration files

Of course, mailbfr includes self-update functionality, so if you’ve already installed it you can merely just run it for a prompt to update.

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Critical Mac OS X Java Vulnerabilities

by on 20. May, 2009 in Security

It appears that there some critical vulnerabilities in Java that, while fixed by Sun, have not made their way into Mac OS X, even with the newly-released Mac OS X 10.5.7. These vulnerabilities can be taken advantage of to run commands outside of the Java sandbox as the executing user.

Landon Fuller has an overview, workarounds, and a proof-of-concept and Julien Tinnes has a detailed explanation & example. The workaround? Disable Java and ‘Open “safe” files after downloading’ in Safari and other browsers. But you disabled ‘Open “safe” files after downloading’ long ago, right?

[Via Daring Fireball]

Update: This was fixed in Java for Mac OS X 10.4 Release 9 & Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 on June 15th, 2009.

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The WPA Crack

by on 07. Nov, 2008 in Security

Glenn Fleishmann over at Ars Technica has a great article explaining the new WPA crack. Here’s the quick & dirty explanation:

[I]t’s a method of decrypting and arbitrarily and successfully re-encrypting and re-injecting short packets on networks that have devices using TKIP. That’s a very critical distinction; this is a serious attack, and the first real flaw in TKIP that’s been found and exploited. But it’s still a subset of a true key crack.

Tews pointed out that “if you used security features just for preventing other people from using your bandwidth, you are perfectly safe,” which is the case for most home users. Someone can’t use this attack to break into a home or corporate network, nor decipher all the data that passes.

Fortunately, WPA2′s AES encryption is not susceptible to this crack, so making sure your AirPort & WiFi networks are switched over to WPA2 is best done sooner rather than later. If you still have some 802.11b/g clients that only support WPA, you’ll want to assess how much of a risk this is for your environment.

[Via Daring Fireball]

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Mac OS X 10.5.5 Server Admin Tools & Apple Remote Desktop 3.2.2

by on 17. Sep, 2008 in General

The past couple of days have seen a number of software updates related to Mac OS X Server, including Mac OS X Server 10.5.5 (combo):

- directory service reliability and authenticating new File Sharing connections
- binding and authentication in Active Directory environments
- editing Wiki content in Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer
- viewing Wikis and Blogs from an iPhone or iPod touch
- searching with Spotlight in the Finder and on the web
- sending ‘Welcome’ email messages to users in Server Preferences
- importing users and working with nested groups in Server Preferences
- randomization of DNS source ports and transaction IDs
- updating DNS information when server IP address changes occur
- hosting DHCP services
- supporting private events in iCal
- synchronizing Portable Home Directories
- enabling Software Update Server
- using SNMPv3 services
- hosting with WebObjects; update to version 5.4.3
- hosting mail services for users with long user names
- preventing mail server database corruption
- ensuring security of LDAP password hashes
- propagating password changes to Open Directory replicas
- creating and editing DNS records in Server Admin
- using System Image Utility to create NetBoot and NetInstall images
- creating augment directory records in Advanced server configuration
- using Managed Preferences when clients are bound to Active Directory
- providing RADIUS authentication to 802.11n-enabled AirPort Base Stations

And, of course, there’s the 10.5.5 Server Admin Tools to go with it:

Server Admin

- Server Admin can now correctly enable and show the status of RADIUS or Kerberos authentication for the PPTP VPN service.
- RADIUS service now reliably displays the primary IP address for 802.11n-enabled AirPort Base Stations.
- Server Admin can now sort by Value in the Zones tab of the DNS service.

System Image Utility

- Fixes issues with certain options in the Apply System Configuration Settings action, including “Change ByHost settings”, “Apply Computer Name and Local Hostname”, and “Map clients to other directory servers”.
- The Add Packages and Post-Install Scripts action now works correctly when creating a NetInstall image from a volume.

Workgroup Manager

- Improves browsing, adding, and removing computers to or from a computer group.

Last, but not least, Apple Remote Desktop Admin and client have been updated to version 3.2.2:

- Improved reliability with the Copy Items command.
- Upgrade Client Software command now uses unicast packets for improved reliability on some networks.
- Fixes to the Force Quit All Applications and Copy Items to Computer Automator actions.

Let us know any success or horror stories you may have related to these updates.

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Corsair’s Securing Mac OS X White Paper Updated for Leopard

by on 20. Aug, 2008 in General

Corsair has updated their Securing Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger white paper to include “the new security features offered by Mac OS X Leopard (10.5)” as of August 18th.

You can grab any of their white papers (including the Tiger & Panther versions of “Securing Mac OS X”) from their Technical White Papers page. Or, you can grab the Securing Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) (PDF) directly.

[Via TUAW]

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