Apple's Safari updates fix auto-complete vulnerability

reghakr

Essential Member
The latest updates to Apple's Safari WebKit-based browser, versions 5.0.1 and 4.1.1, include several new features, such as enabling Safari Extensions and introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery,. They also address a number of security vulnerabilities. In total, the Safari updates close 15 security holes, many of them rated as critical by Apple.

In total, 13 of the vulnerabilities are related to problems caused by the browsers open source WebKit rendering engine, all of which could allow an attacker to crash a victims browser or execute arbitrary code on a user's system. The issues range from heap buffer overflows in the rendering engine's handling of JavaString objects, to memory corruption issues in the handling of floating elements in SVG documents and an uninitialized memory access issue in SVG text elements. According to Apple, for an attack to be successful, a victim must first visit a specially crafted web page.

The updates also address a cross-site scripting (XSS) issue in the way that Safari handles RSS feeds that could have allowed a maliciously crafted RSS feed to send files from the user's system to a remote server and an information disclosure vulnerability in the auto-complete feature used by the browser to fill in frequently used form fields, such as names or email addresses. As Link Removed due to 404 Error, the auto-complete vulnerability was discovered by Jeremiah Grossman of White Hat Security and initially reported to Apple on the 17th of June.

The vulnerability allows an attacker to retrieve auto-complete data from the browser using a simple script on a specially crafted web page. The malicious page would contain various input fields, such as name, email address or credit card number, and the script would try out all possible characters for the first character in these fields, in an attempt to trigger the auto-complete feature. If the browser then auto-completes the entry, the attackers script saves the resulting entry. A similar form of this attack scenario is already familiar from versions 6 and 7 of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Grossman says that, in combination with cross-site scripting, Chrome and Firefox are also said to be vulnerable.

Link Removed - Invalid URL is available to download for Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard, 10.6.2 Snow Leopard and Windows XP SP2 or later. Alternatively, Link Removed - Invalid URL provided for users running Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger. Mac OS X users can upgrade to the latest release via the Link Removed - Invalid URL. All users are advised to upgrade to the latest release as soon as possible.

See also:
  • Link Removed - Invalid URL, security advisory from Apple.
  • Link Removed due to 404 Error, press release from Apple.
  • Link Removed due to 404 Error, a report from The H.
 
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I believe that it fixes something but what, is what concerns me. I have had more crashes with 5.01 than with 5. It seems like I can depend upon it crashing at any time while I am on the internet. I hope they (Apple) chooses to bring out a fix fairly soon, as this one really stinks big time. While this is truly my own opinion, I really can not find anything nice to say about 5.01. And while I was working with this morning I found no way to sort bookmarks, or have I missed something per usual? I love Apple a lot but, not when it does not work right.
 
Sorry I can't be of any help as Safari is probably the only browser I have never tested.

I'd suggest you start a new thread and explain in detail the error messages you are receiving or if it just locks up.

Give as many details on your system as possible.
 
Hello.
I am really surprised to read your post. I am using 5.01 from last couple of months. I found its performance really satisfactory. I would love to know something more from you about the errors you are facing with it. Please post the error messages whenever possible. Will like to share my views on the same in future.
 
As I thought I may have stated there were never any messages when it would crash. However, much of that seems to be history now that I reformatted and reinstalled everything. Oh it has crashed once or twice but, nothing like it used to. But, again what bugs me is no error messages at all. Just right back to the desktop and thats it.
 
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