Apple has reversed course and patched a bug in its Safari browser after security researchers showed how it could be used to run unauthorized software on a Windows machine.

The "carpet bomb" bug, which was originally discovered by security researcher Nitesh Dhanjan, was initially thought to be less serious than it turned out to be.

Dhanjan showed how Safari could be misused to litter a victim's desktop with downloaded programs, but two weeks after he disclosed his research, another hacker, named Aviv Raff, showed that this flaw could be exploited in tandem with other problems in Windows and Internet Explorer to run unauthorized software on a victim's PC.

That prompted Microsoft to issue its own warning about the issue. It also caused some security experts to caution Web surfers about using Safari on the Windows platform.

According to Dhanjan, Apple initially told him that it did not intend to fix the issue, but apparently the company has now changed its mind.

Apple fixed the issue in the 3.1.2 version of its Safari browser for Windows, which was released Thursday afternoon. This update addresses a total of four security issues in Safari, including bugs in the way Safari renders JavaScript arrays and handles the downloading of executable files.

It also fixes a less-critical issue in the way Safari renders Bitmap and Gif images, which could give attackers a peek at the memory of a victim's computer, Apple said.

Thursday's update was for Windows computers only, and Apple has not yet released a 3.1.2 Safari update for the Mac.