Boobytrapped images pose threat to Mac users, warns Apple

Users of Mac computers are being advised to install an important security patch, after Apple acknowledged that a serious flaw existed in its Mac OS X operating system that could be exploited by hackers.

In a security advisory posted on its website, the Cupertino-based vendor of iMac and MacBook computers warned that it had discovered that hackers could create specially crafted image files capable of running malicious code without the user’s authorisation, such as a worm or Trojan horse.

The affected image file formats include PNG, Canon RAW and OpenEXR.

To circumvent this and other security issues, Apple is recommend that users install Security Update 2009-003 – updating themselves to Mac OS X v10.5.8:

Owners of Mac computers would be wise to follow Apple’s advice, else put their systems at risk of infection via rigged image files created by hackers.

As described in Sophos’s recently…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.