Apple sealed 20 holes in Mac OS X

Apple has released an update to close a total of 20 security holes in OS X and other applications.

Over the past few weeks, Mac OS X has consistently become the target of malicious virus programmers. At the same time, security experts discovered a serious security vulnerability in this operating system.

"This update contains security holes in Safari and the security vulnerability exploited by the Leap-A virus ," an Apple spokesman said.

This update also fixes another security bug related to the Safari browser. This is a security error related to how the operating system decompresses or executes non-display attribute details (metadata) in compressed files. This security error can be exploited in combination with security flaws in Safari or by tricking users into opening an email with a special compressed file attached.

The update also changes security settings in the operating system to protect users from computer worms such as the Leap-A - a powerful worm spreading through the iChat client instant messenger on Apple's Mac by sending a file to every object in the user's friend list and taking advantage of the Download Validation feature to activate those computer worm viruses.

Apple also fixed some less serious security flaws, such as security flaws in the Directory Service. This security error allows users to create and duplicate files even though they do not have administrative rights. Or IPsec-related security flaws allow hackers to organize denial-of-service attacks on virtual private network (VPN) connections.

Users can download this update at the Apple website.