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A Mac OS X security primer by Arstechnica |
Apple's approach to security can be a little bewildering at times. It's a well-trumpeted aspect of the OS, marketed in detail on the website. Mac OS X has integrated smartcard support and Apple has certified the OS under the Common Criteria guidelines; a section of Apple's developer site is devoted to the subject of security.
At the same time, Apple didn't offer cryptographically signed software updates until its hand was forced in July 2002. The company is notorious for boiling down release notes for software updates to "provides bug fixes and security updates" (although the separate mailings posted to the security-announce list do tend to offer a little more detail). While other Unix distributions tend to patch holes in open-source code relatively quickly, Apple sometimes delays rolling out a security fix in the open-source components of Mac OS X for months or even years.
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