Earlier this week, Apple released Security Update 2007-007 for the Mac OS 10.3.9, 10.4.9 and Mac OS X Server 10.4.9. The mega-patch release fixes nearly fifty vulnerabilities in the current version of the Mac OS, and affects a variety of system components and common applications, including CoreAudio, iChat, Kerberos, mDNSResponder, PDFKit, QuartzComposer, TomCat, SquirrelMail, WebKit, WebCore and the Perl Regular Expressions Library.

Most of the vulnerabilities repaired for OS X 10.3.9 could result in the execution of arbitrary code or the unexpected termination of an application. A number of corrected vulnerabilities could produce buffer overflows, arbitrary shell command execution or command injection. Other vulnerabilities would have permitted cross-site scripting if a user were led to a Web site and tricked into running malicious code. Few vulnerabilities were reported to provide privileged system access.

The Intel-based patch is nearly 27 Mb in size and is available from the Apple Web site.

The company also released the first patch for the iPhone in advance of the Black Hat USA 2007/Defcon 15 convention in Las Vegas, which starts today (August 3) and runs through Sunday, August 5.