A Mission Viejo, Calif., security researcher has posted code that exploits a number of newly discovered and unpatched bugs in the Mac OS X platform.The software, posted Friday by independent researcher Tom Ferris, could be used to crash applications or even run unauthorized code on the Mac by taking advantage of bugs in the Safari browser and Mac OS X operating system. Ferris’s “proof of concept” code exploits a total of seven bugs. Apple Computer has already been made aware of the bugs and plans to fix them in “the next security release,” Ferris said in a posting to his Security-protocols.com blog.“There [seem] to be some problems with the claimed solid-as-a-rock Unix OS,” he wrote on his blog. “Getting Safari to crash in many different spots is trivial, as where Firefox is very tough.” Long considered to be more secure than Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Mac OS X has increasingly been the focus of security researchers like Ferris. In February, a number of malicious programs, including one called OSX/Leap, were released targeting the Macintosh.The SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center rated Ferris’ bugs as “highly critical,” and warned that there are no patches or workarounds available for the majority of these vulnerabilities. Ferris made headlines earlier this year when he discovered a bug in the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 preview browser within minutes of the product being released.Apple representatives were not immediately available to comment for this story.-Robert McMillan, IDG News ServiceCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe