Month Of Patches Takes On Month Of Apple Bugs

A day after the "Month of Apple Bugs" campaign debuted, a former Apple Computer developer posted patches for the first two vulnerabilities disclosed by the bug-a-day hacker crusade, and promised to meet each new flaw with a fix.

Landon Fuller, now involved in the DarwinPorts project -- an effort to install open-source software on the Mac OS X, Darwin, and OpenDarwin operating systems -- stepped in with the fixes as "part brain exercise, part public service," he wrote on his blog.

"You can download the source [code], or download a pre-built binary," Fuller said of the patch for the first Month of Apple Bugs (MoAB) vulnerability, which involves Apple's QuickTime media player. "You'll also need to install Application Enhancer to use this." Application Enhancer is a free-of-charge download from Unsanity, a St. George, Utah-based Mac developer.

The second MoAB flaw, which impacts the VLC media player, has also been patched by Fuller; the VLC developers have issued their own update to the media player. Fuller's second fix also requires Application Enhancer to install.

"If you'd like to help with tomorrow's MoAB vulnerability please feel free to send me patches or other information," Fuller added.

MoAB is a follow-up to November's "Month of Kernel Bugs" campaign, and is co-hosted by that project's poster, a hacker who goes by the initials "LMH," and his partner, Kevin Finisterre, a researcher who has also uncovered numerous Mac vulnerabilities.

Apple has been mum about MoAB. Tuesday, company spokesman Anuj Nayar simply said that "Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users."

The MoAB site can be found here; the day's vulnerability is typically posted during the afternoon, Pacific time.