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Mavericks update fixes Gmail woes and Safari autofill password disclosure bug

Apple's Mavericks 10.9.1 delivers further improvements to its Mail client for Gmail users and some important security fixes for flaws in Safari.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

Apple has released Mavericks 10.9.1, its first update to the new OS X, which fixes compatibility issues between Gmail and Mail and contains a handful of fixes for security flaws in Safari.

The update, released overnight, should provide further relief for Gmail users who upgraded early to Mavericks. Some users installing Mavericks early on reported that the OS slowed down delivery of Gmail to Mail, re-indexed folders, crammed up storage with already read messages, and removed Smart Folders rules.

Apple responded in November with an update for Mail in Mavericks that addressed many of those complaints; however, more fixes are in store with the latest update to Mavericks itself.  

According to Apple's support documentation, Mavericks v10.9.1 comes with "improved support for Gmail in OS X Mail, and fixes for users with custom Gmail settings"; changes that improve the reliability of Smart Mailboxes and search in Mail; and a fix for an issue that prevented contact groups from working properly in Mail.

Apple also released new versions of Safari 6 and Safari 7, which address nine vulnerabilities affecting both browsers — one of which could disclose user names and passwords to an unexpected site through an autofill bug.

The eight other memory corruption bugs Apple lists affect the WebKit rendering engine and could cause the browser to crash or expose Macs to arbitrary code execution if they visit a malicious site using Safari.

Mac owners running Mavericks will get Safari version 7.0.1 in the OS update. However, the newest version of the browser is also available for OS X Lion v10.7.5, OS X Lion Server v10.7.5, OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5.

Meanwhile, Safari 6 for these same systems has been updated to Safari 6.1.1, containing fixes for flaws common to both browsers.

Other issues Apple says are addressed in Mavericks include:

  • Fixes an issue that prevented iLife and iWork apps from updating on non-English systems
  • Addresses an issue that may cause multiple prompts to unlock “Local items” keychain 
  • Addresses an issue that may cause Japanese keyboards to retain a previously used language
  • Includes Safari 7.0.1
  • Fixes an issue that could cause Safari to become unresponsive when filling out forms on fedex.com, stubhub.com, and other websites
  • Improves Credit Card Autofill compatibility with websites
  • Improves VoiceOver compatibility with facebook.com 
  • Updates Shared Links periodically when open in the Safari Sidebar

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