Apple's OS 9 patch brings new problems
In e-mail messages to MacWEEK and postings on Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) Web-based Tech Exchange forum, dozens of users have posted complaints about the fix. "Anyone who ... installs the patch is definitely safe from the security problem -- because you can no longer get online," one user wrote to MacWEEK. "Remove [the patch] and everything is right back to normal."
The patch, actually a new extension in the Mac System folder, was intended to fix a bug in Mac OS 9's Open Transport networking protocol that leaves a small minority of Macs vulnerable to hackers who could enlist the computers over an Internet connection in distributed denial-of-service attacks without the users' knowledge. The bug affects only users of "always-on" Internet connections such as digital subscriber lines (DSL) or cable modems.
Apple released the bug patch late Tuesday. On Wednesday, when complaints about OT Tuner started surfacing, Apple acknowledged that users experiencing connectivity problems will have to restart their Macs whenever they change their system's TCP/IP settings.
The OT Tuner patch "is only for people in a very specific situation," an Apple spokesman told MacWEEK. "For those people, if they change their Internet settings with this they need to restart their machines. That's it."
The spokesman emphasized that the bug patch -- and the need to restart machines after changing TCP/IP settings -- applies only to those people who have high-speed Internet connections. Other Mac OS 9 users who use standard dial-up modem connections are unaffected by the bug and have no need for the patch.
Apple released OT Tuner 1.0 in response to the discovery by Georgia Institute of Technology Professor John Copeland of a flaw in Mac OS 9's Open Transport networking protocol. The flaw makes it possible for hackers to send small data packets repeatedly to individual Macs connected to DSL or cable modems. Each computer running Mac OS 9 would then respond with very large packets, which could be directed to a target computer and overwhelm its network connection. (For more details, see Copeland's discussion.)