Apple updates OS X

Apple has issued updates for its two most recent Macintosh operating system releases.

The company said that the new updates would bring security fixes for MacOS 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard) as well as additional performance and stability updates for Snow Leopard.

The 10.6.3 update is said to issue compatibility issues with components such as QuickTime, Open GL and DNS. Additionally the update stabilises USB drive compatibility and printing reliability.

The Snow Leopard update also improves performance of LogicPro 9, Bonjour, iMovie and iChat.

The security update includes some 69 fixes for various components in both Leopard and Snow Leopard. The patches are part of the 10.6.3 update for Snow Leopard, but for Leopard users the download will be a stand-alone security update.

Among the fixes in the update are nine different fixes for vulnerabilities in QuickTime and four fixes for flaws in the ImageIO component.

Not mentioned in Apple's security release were the Safari vulnerabilities exploited by researcher Charlie Miller at last week's CanSecWest Pwn2Own competition. Apple did, however, credit multiple vulnerability disclosures in the update to both known and anonymous researchers working for contest host TippingPoint.