Mountain Lion patched

Apple has released a security update for its Mountain Lion operating system, which patched 21 flaws, including a vulnerability that could allow a Java Web Start application to be launched automatically, despite Java being disabled.

In the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.3 update, Apple said the now-patched Java Web Start vulnerability (CVE-2013-0967) exposed even users who had disabled the Java plug-in.

“Visiting a maliciously crafted website could allow a Java Web Start application to be launched automatically even if the Java plug-in is disabled,” it said,

Java Web Start allows users to download and run Java applications using their web browser.

The Java Web Start patch is available for users of OS X Lion (versions 10.7 to 10.7.5), OS X Lion Server (versions 10.7 to 10.7.5), and OS X Mountain Lion (versions 10.8 to 10.8.2).

With the update, Apple also released its latest Safari browser for Mac users, version 6.0.3, which patched 17 vulnerabilities.

Of the bugs, 15 were flaws in WebKit, the open-source engine used to render web pages. The vulnerabilities could allow an unexpected application termination, arbitrary code execution or cross-site scripting attacks.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineus.com