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Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Apple finally blocks untrusted DigiNotar SSL certificates in Mac OS X

By | September 9, 2011, 11:39am PDT

Summary: Time to patch your Mac OS X to protect yourself against fraudulent DigiNotar SSL certificates

It’s taken Apple two weeks, but finally the company has issued a patch for Mac OS X to block DigiNotar from the list of trusted root certificates and from the list of Extended Validation (EV) certificate authorities.

DigiNotar is one out of  hundreds of firms that are authorized to issue digital certificates used to verify the identity of a website. On August 30 the company announced that its servers had been compromised and that fake certificates might have leaked into the wild.

Here are the updates:

Additional information here:

Certificate Trust Policy

Available for: Mac OS X v10.6.8, Mac OS X Server v10.6.8, OS X Lion v10.7.1, Lion Server v10.7.1

Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may intercept user credentials or other sensitive information

Description: Fraudulent certificates were issued by multiple certificate authorities operated by DigiNotar. This issue is addressed by removing DigiNotar from the list of trusted root certificates, from the list of Extended Validation (EV) certificate authorities, and by configuring default system trust settings so that DigiNotar’s certificates, including those issued by other authorities, are not trusted.

Apple has yet to offer a patch to protect iOS users from fraudulent DigiNotar certificates.

Time to run Software Updates on your Macs!

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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: Apple finally blocks untrusted DigiNotar SSL certificates in Mac OS X
mep01378 9th Sep
@toddybottom

It would be a tour-de-force for Adrian. All he has to do is find/replace Microsoft product terms with Apple product terms.

C'mon Adrian! Don't tell me you forgot about the "article" you wrote on Windows? Or are you busy copy/pasting best kit for October already?
Can I ask why you didn't use the following title?
"Is OS X vulnerable to attack by stolen digital certificates?"

And then spend the article explaining how yes, OS X is vulnerable to attack?

Or was it your intention to make it sound like only Windows is vulnerable to attack?
0 Votes
+ -
Not sure...
UrNotPayingAttention 9th Sep
@toddybottom

Technically, Both OS X and Windows is vulnerable, if they're unpatched...

Maybe he was just pointing out that it took Apple longer to patch than it did Microsoft:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219746/Microsoft_flips_kill_switch_on_all_DigiNotar_certificates
@toddybottom

It would be a tour-de-force for Adrian. All he has to do is find/replace Microsoft product terms with Apple product terms.

C'mon Adrian! Don't tell me you forgot about the "article" you wrote on Windows? Or are you busy copy/pasting best kit for October already?
Something must have happened for them to finally take action.

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