Apple rushes iTunes update to plug security hole

 

Apple has rushed an update to its iTunes software to fix a security hole, a security firm said over the weekend.

 

Sophos said iTunes 11.2 contained a "permissions blunder" that could allow anyone to modify local user accounts on a machine running Apple's OS X.

 

Citing Apple's security bulletin, Sophos' Paul Ducklin said in a blog post that a local user who exploits the bug "can compromise other local user accounts."

 

"Upon each reboot, the permissions for the /Users and /Users/Shared directories would be set to world-writable, allowing modification of these directories," it added.

 

Ducklin said this is particularly dangerous for iTunes users on Mac machines, adding iTunes for Windows does not seem to be affected.

 

On the other hand, Ducklin said the patch applies all the way back to Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com

Justin Bieber's untimely death in a car crash is just a Facebook hoax

Fans of singer Justin Bieber were warned this week against a new variant of an old scam circulating on social networking site Facebook.

Security vendor Sophos said the scam attracts attention by claiming Bieber died in a car crash, and offering "details" of the incident.

"Past bogus death reports have involved the likes of deaths of Adam Ant, Jim Carrey, Christian Slater, Vanilla Ice, Tom Cruise amongst many others," it said.

  

It also cited a similar scam earlier this year, where a "Global Associated" story that Pet Shop Boys star Neil Tennant also died in a car crash.

Sophos said some websites merely allow anyone to "automagically" generate a fake news story about a death in a car crash.

Simply changing the link changes the name of the victim, it said.

"Before you know it, Internet users are unwittingly forwarding the message without checking their facts, and the tasteless website is earning itself some cash from all of the new traffic seeing its adverts," it said.

Yet, it said careless Facebook users are re-sharing this bogus story of Bieber's death.

This not just keeps the hoax alive but also helps drive traffic "to a website that thinks it is clever to play such sick pranks," it added. — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com