Science and technology news blog

Not to be outdone by their Windows counterparts at CES, Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit announced today at Macworld the release of a universal version of Office designed to run on both Power-PC and Intel-based Macs. Set for release in the second half of 2007, Office 2008 for Mac promises to implement new tools and introduce an Apple-centric look and feel, while retaining the program’s existing Windows-sharing capabilities.

Like the recently-introduced Office 2007 for Windows, Office 2008 will feature Office Art 2.0, a graphics engine that allows users to add professional level graphics with ease. Mac users will also receive their own, unique version of Office 2007’s popular user-friendly interface, Ribbon. Designed with Apple users is mind Elements attempts to make Office’s tools more easily discoverable by users, taking full advantage of Mac-specific technologies, and maintaining a look and feel familiar to its users.

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A newly disclosed security vulnerability in Apple Computer’s QuickTime software could put both Macs and Windows PCs at risk of cyberattacks, experts have warned.

The publication on Monday of the vulnerability and detailed attack code kicks off the “Month of the Apple Bugs” project, which promises to feature a new Apple software bug each day in January.

The QuickTime vulnerability relates to how the media player software handles the Real Time Streaming Protocol, or RTSP, according to an advisory published on the Month of the Apple Bugs Web site. An attacker could create a special RTSP string in a rigged QuickTime file that would cause a buffer overflow, according to the advisory.

“The risk is having your system compromised by a remote attacker, who can perform any operation under privileges of your user account,” said LMH, the alias of one of the two security researchers behind the Month of the Apple Bugs. “It can be triggered via JavaScript, Flash, common links, QTL files and any other method that starts QuickTime.”

The vulnerability affects QuickTime 7.1.3, the latest version of the media player software released in September, on both Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, according to the Month of the Apple Bugs advisory. Previous versions could also be vulnerable, according to the advisory.

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Security researchers have disclosed flaws in Apple Computer’s Mac OS X operating system that allow attackers to crash the computer and possible hijack it. Although some experts pegged the bugs as serious, others downplayed the threat.

On Monday, the “Month of Kernel Bugs” project, a month-long disclosure of operating system flaws, announced that a bug in Mac OS X’s processing of DMG files—disk images typically used to distribute software for the Mac—could be exploited to crash a target machine. There was also the possibility that attackers could introduce additional malicious code to the compromised system to, for example, snatch control from its legitimate user.

Tuesday, the kernel bug campaign posted another Mac OS X flaw; the second bug, which also can be exploited via a malformed DMG file, involves how the operating system handles bad sectors in a disk image. A crash would be the likely result, said the online description of the flaw.

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