​ + OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 Released — Fixing Numerous Security Holes Posted on August 14th, 2015 by Apple has issued an update to the OS X Yosemite operating system, bringing it up to version 10.10.5. Although many users will appreciate bug fixes that the company has incorporated into new versions of its Mail, Photos, and QuickTime Player apps, what will interest readers of this blog the most will be the security patches that Apple has rolled out. Amongst the incorporated into this update are fixes for issues with WebKit, Safari, Apache, BlueTooth, Kernel, and QuickTime 7. One of the highest profile security holes patched in the OS X 10.10.5 update is the, through which a malicious hacker who has already broken into your computer could give themselves system-level powers to cause further harm.

1. Installerapp Released For Macbook

Security researcher, Stefan Esser, published details of the vulnerability alongside proof-of-concept code before telling Apple about the flaw, and in the days that followed we began to see exploiting the security hole. It's good to see that Apple has now managed to fix this issue, before more harm is done, rather than waiting until the public release of OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Sadly, there is no sign in this update of a fix to the so-called Thunderstrike 2 vulnerability, for which security researchers to demonstrate how it could spread between Macbooks, infecting firmware. The typical user might not need to lose much sleep over Thunderstrike 2 just yet, as the research has all been done by members of the security community rather than criminal hackers, and there is no evidence that the vulnerability is being maliciously exploited.

All the same the hysteria over hard-to-detect UEFI chip-infecting malware has hopefully reminded Mac users that they are not magically immune from malware threats, and that it makes sense for them to run an anti-virus program. Fingers crossed, Apple will release a proper fix for Thunderstrike 2 sooner rather than later. And, by the way, if you're not running OS X Yosemite on your Mac don't think that you don't have any updating to do. OS X Mavericks and Mountain Lion users should ensure that they update Safari against a, even if they aren't ready or aren't able to make the jump to OS X 10.10.5. These flaws include remote code execution exploits and a security hole that could assist online criminals in phishing information from unsuspecting users. If you're ready to install OS X Yosemite 10.10.5, enter the App Store app and click on the Updates tab.

Once there, you should see the update if it is available to you, and all you should need to do is click the 'Update' button to begin the installation. To complete the installation, you will have to restart your Mac, so I would recommend choosing a convenient time of day so your work isn't disrupted too much. About Graham Cluley Graham Cluley is an award-winning security blogger, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by companies such as Sophos, McAfee and Dr Solomon's.

He has given talks about computer security for some of the world's largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and regularly appears on TV and radio explaining computer security threats. Graham Cluley was inducted into the InfoSecurity Europe Hall of Fame in 2011, and was given an honorary mention in the '10 Greatest Britons in IT History' for his contribution as a leading authority in internet security. Follow him on Twitter at. This entry was posted in, and tagged,. Bookmark the. I have a late ’09 MacBook with 10.10.5 and have been seeing lockup issues with both Safari and Firefox. I’ve gone through and run a repair on permissions and am now able to use the system.

I checked for core files and none exist. It would take a hard shutdown to bring the system back to life. The last time, after it came back, I immediately shut it down via the login screen and then ran the permissions repair. I have about 65gb left on my 256gb drive and perform regular backups. I run 8gb RAM which has never been an issue. This has just begun since upgrading to 10.10.5.

Installerapp Released For Macbook

I neglected to download a Sierra installer prior to the introduction of High Sierra. I tried searching for Sierra on the App Store but as expected it wasn't an option since I hadn't previously downloaded it. A couple of days ago I decided to do an Internet search to see if a Sierra installer might be available. One of the first hits I got was dated October 18, 2017. A Mac Geek Gab listener had found an active App Store download link. I figured that the link must be long gone by now but I tried it anyway. To my astonishment, the Sierra download link is still active.

Two additional Apple Support links on how to download Sierra are also on the webpage. I installed Sierra this afternoon on my 2012 Mac Mini which had been running Yosemite 10.10.5. I had a problem with the Mac Mini reverting to the old internal hard drive after the Sierra installation and a subsequent Apple Security update and restart.

The external boot volume didn't even show up as an option in Startup Drive in System Preferences. So I tried a Terminal command that allows automatic loading of Option ROM firmware.

When I restarted, the Mini booted from the external SSD and it is now included in the Startup Disk preference pane. More info about the cause and how to address it can be found. At any rate, I've posted the link in case anyone else needs the Sierra installer. I think that I have seen a couple of posts from people in the same position as me but I cannot locate those particular threads. Can you please explain what you mean by an Installer? I'm using my daughter's MacBook Air while my PC is in for repair.

I keep getting a notice to upgrade and, if I recall correctly, it said something about High Sierra. I think it required her to sign in. I keep hitting remind me tomorrow until I have a chance to speak with her. Will it install itself, or will she need something special? She's not tech savvy, and I know little if anything about the Mac OS. Eontimer 2.7.2 free download for mac.

Are changes usually dramatic? In other words, can she expect her current programs to work after the update? She has OS X v. 10.9.5 Thank you.

Fotografffic wrote: Can you please explain what you mean by an Installer? I'm using my daughter's MacBook Air while my PC is in for repair. I keep getting a notice to upgrade and, if I recall correctly, it said something about High Sierra. I think it required her to sign in. I keep hitting remind me tomorrow until I have a chance to speak with her. Will it install itself, or will she need something special? She's not tech savvy, and I know little if anything about the Mac OS.

Are changes usually dramatic? In other words, can she expect her current programs to work after the update? She has OS X v. 10.9.5 Thank you. An installer is simply a program that installs software. High Sierra is the latest Mac operating system which was released a few months ago. The current version is 10.13.2.

Your daughter's OS is Mavericks 10.9.5. High Sierra is a major OS upgrade compared to some past upgrades. Installing such an upgrade on an older Mac that hasn't seen an OS upgrade in years is even more problematic than a newer Mac that has been upgraded on a regular basis. The changes could be dramatic, including making some of the software she uses have problems or not work at all until they are upgraded, usually for an upgrade fee. Depending on the age of her Mac, it's hardware could have some problems running High Sierra. New OS releases usually have bugs, there are compatibility issues with older software and hardware that have not yet been updated by the manufacturers or users, etc.

I've been using Macs for over 20 years and I won't be upgrading my 2012 Mac Mini to High Sierra anytime soon, maybe never. When I do upgrade an OS I wait until the bugs have been addressed and my hardware/software is ready. Sometimes I'm happy with how my Mac is running and I have no pressing need to upgrade. I just upgraded from Yosemite 10.10.5 to Sierra 10.12.6 yesterday.

I wouldn't do anything to her Mac. Just ignore the entreaties to upgrade. There are reasons why she hasn't been keeping her Mac upgraded and we don't know what they are.

You could make her computer run poorly or even unusable and addressing the cause(s) would require assistance from an experienced friend, a consultant or a repair shop. Lightandaprayer wrote: I've been using Macs for over 20 years and I won't be upgrading my 2012 Mac Mini to High Sierra anytime soon, maybe never. When I do upgrade an OS I wait until the bugs have been addressed and my hardware/software is ready.

Sometimes I'm happy with how my Mac is running and I have no pressing need to upgrade. I just upgraded from Yosemite 10.10.5 to Sierra 10.12.6 yesterday. I wouldn't do anything to her Mac. Just ignore the entreaties to upgrade.

There are reasons why she hasn't been keeping her Mac upgraded and we don't know what they are. You could make her computer run poorly or even unusable and addressing the cause(s) would require assistance from an experienced friend, a consultant or a repair shop. Glad I asked. Thanks so much for the info. She's really not into computing; just surfing the net and email. I have no idea why she hasn't upgraded in the past but I do know this. It's running extremely well for her needs, so why mess with it and older, but very functional, programs.

It took me a while to find out how, but I believe I was able to turn off updates correctly, ie. Via the gear-looking icon (system preferences) in the Dock area (I wasn't able to do so through Apple System Prefs).

Here is a screenshot. Does it look like everything is alright? I'm nervous since you mentioned the update could really mess up everything on my daughter's computer.

That looks good to me; I meant to suggest disabling upgrade prompts but neglected to do so. For future reference, the 'Missing Manual' guides written David Pogue are excellent for learning about specific Mac operating systems. I suspect that the 'High Sierra' guide has yet to be published. I also highly recommend the ebooks from Take Control Books.com. For example, they publish a guide about how to prepare for and install 'High Sierra.' It's step-by-step and relatively easy to understand.

It costs $10. If all this gets you to thinking about possibly upgrading your daughter's Mac, Sierra is tried and true and may be compatible with her Mac. She could probably use the OS until it is time to get a new Mac.

The ebook is still available. The thing is, the Sierra installer won't be available for much longer. Apple removes old OS installers from the App Store shortly after the release of a new OS. (The old installers remain available only to those who downloaded a copy before they were removed from the store.) You can use to learn whether the Mac is compatible and to download Sierra. Save the installer just in case you might want to use it later. You'll likely need your daughter's Apple ID in order to do the download.

You can contact me via Private Messaging if you have any questions. Lightandaprayer wrote: That looks good to me; I meant to suggest disabling upgrade prompts but neglected to do so. System date files and security updates are also disabled. Will they be listed here when needed? Or is there another place to update security and system data files?

Thanks so much for the references. If all this gets you to thinking about possibly upgrading your daughter's Mac, Sierra is tried and true and may be compatible with her Mac. I'll discuss with her but I don't know enough about this stuff (and doubt she does either) to know if upgrading is worth the hassle since, if anything goes wrong we don't know how to fix it and her notebook is out of warranty. She could probably use the OS until it is time to get a new Mac.

You can use to learn whether the Mac is compatible and to download Sierra. Will check it out. Need to find out if any OS upgrades are worth the time an effort.

As I've said, her current setup is doing just fine; she wouldn't know how to go though the process, and I've just gone through almost five months of (oh never mind), with a new Dell computer. Getting kinda weary and just want to learn just enough about the Mac to use it while my laptop is in for repair. Many of the problems with my computer seem to have been update-related (Microsoft does frequent updates, plus two major ones a year, and W10 Home Edition users have no control of updates).

You can contact me via Private Messaging if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your very kind offer!! Btw, my daughter said she never updated the Mac OS because she didn't want to mess things up.

I never did when I used Windows 7; never had problems just like my daughter. It's Windows 10 that has given me problems. I gave away my beloved W7 laptop to someone who had no computer.but that's okay. Fotografffic wrote: lightandaprayer wrote: That looks good to me; I meant to suggest disabling upgrade prompts but neglected to do so. System date files and security updates are also disabled. Will they be listed here when needed?

Or is there another place to update security and system data files? I can't say as I have never disabled the upgrade prompts. You could try monitoring updates manually for awhile or bite the bullet and turn them back on. When I have a question like this, I always start with Google (Startpage.com for privacy). 99% of the time I find an answer on the first page of hits. That's how I figured out why my external SSD would not boot after the Sierra upgrade and how to correct the situation.

Our computers are complex beasts; none of us can be expected to know everything about their inner workings. If I cannot find the answer myself, then I use the official Apple forum or a third-party forum, search the forum for previous posts and then post a question if the search was fruitless. I highly recommend that your daughter avail herself of the basic guides I mentioned earlier to learn more about her Mac, Apple tutorials, online resources such as YouTube instructional videos and her local Mac User Group, if there is one in her area. I decided to learn about my Mac after I spent well over a thousand dollars in 1997 to pay a consultant to help me configure my Mac and peripherals for my photography business.

(Things were more complicated then, installers weren't as 'intelligent' etc. Just getting the first consumer Epson photo inkjet printer and an Apple LaserWriter 360 to coexist took him hours of effort.) After watching him work (and begging him to teach me the basics. He was determined to keep me dependent on him) I made up my mind to never be in that position again. I later realized that my 'consultant' was doing a fair amount of on-the-job learning at my considerable expense! And he had a going concern that was used by businesses in my rural community. Lightandaprayer wrote: I can't say as I have never disabled the upgrade prompts. You could try monitoring updates manually for awhile or bite the bullet and turn them back on.

I'll monitor and update manually for a while. When I have a question like this, I always start with Google (Startpage.com for privacy). Wow, I never heard os startpage.com before. I've been using duckduckgo and Ghostery on my cellphone. I highly recommend that your daughter avail herself of the basic guides I mentioned earlier to learn more about her Mac, I'll suggest it to her but, honestly, she's like most of my friends: she just wants to surf and type. Don't really care about learning what happens behind the scenes.

I'm the geeky one (but so far in knowledge compared to most people in the Mac and PC forums). I'm the first one's my friends call and often, but not always, I can solve their problems by doing research and asking for forum help if I don't already have the information. I DO know my limits though, and know when to stop if I'm over my head. I decided to learn about my Mac after I spent well over a thousand dollars in 1997 to pay a consultant to help me configure my Mac and peripherals for my photography business.

(Things were more complicated then, installers weren't as 'intelligent' etc. Just getting the first consumer Epson photo inkjet printer and an Apple LaserWriter 360 to coexist took him hours of effort.) After watching him work (and begging him to teach me the basics. He was determined to keep me dependent on him) I made up my mind to never be in that position again. I later realized that my 'consultant' was doing a fair amount of on-the-job learning at my considerable expense! And he had a going concern that was used by businesses in my rural community. Very interesting. I don't think you're the only one that has been played by their 'consultant.'

Glad you became wise to him. I try to learn as much as I need to keep my equipment purring; enough for my basic needs: photo editing, writing, graphics. I'm reaching the age, though, that a lot of this stuff has started bugging me. The internet has gotten so commercial and annoying (I started using the internet pre-browser (listservs) when I was in education. It wasn't perfect, but nothing popped in your face, or slid over, under, sideway across the page;, wiggles, autoplay, etc).

But I digress.sorry. Fotografffic wrote: When I have a question like this, I always start with Google (Startpage.com for privacy). Wow, I never heard os startpage.com before. I've been using duckduckgo and Ghostery on my cellphone.

I used DuckDuckGo when it was initially introduced but I wasn't very happy with the results. Startpage uses the Google search engine but strips away your IP address before submitting your search to Google. (There is also encryption involved and other features.) You can make Startpage the default search engine in Safari by using the Startpage HTTPS extension. The same thing may be possible with Windows. I also use Ghostery as well as AdBlock Plus and the Safari extension version of Disconnect on my Macs. That takes care of tracking but it is sometimes necessary to pause blocking when it interferes with website functions.

I'm not tracked while online nor do I see any advertisements in my Web browser or email. (I do 'whitelist' websites that I support so they receive ad revenue from my visits.) I recommend subscribing to a personal VPN service and using it for all your digital devices. Figure an average cost of $5/month for a VPN. That will cover at least two computers and all of your portable digital devices.

Allegedly 'free' VPNs have been found to be selling user information to advertisers and even more unsavory folks. I like Witopia.net; PIA is another well-regarded VPN company. All data is encrypted between your devices and the VPN server, so public WiFi is safer. Your IP address is replaced with the server's IP address so your Internet 'address' is not associated with you in any way. Even your ISP cannot log or track your Internet usage when you use a VPN.

(Using a VPN can also cause some websites and services to not function correctly but one gets the hang of it rather quickly and it is easy to disconnect and reconnect as the need arises.) I do not use GMail nor do I sign-in to my Google account except for limited single-use situations. I have my account as locked-down as humanly possible. I use a paid email service based in Norway called Runbox.com; the cost of our four accounts (two 'personal' and two 'public' for my wife and I) is around $5/month. I highly recommend that your daughter avail herself of the basic guides I mentioned earlier to learn more about her Mac, I'll suggest it to her but, honestly, she's like most of my friends: she just wants to surf and type. Don't really care about learning what happens behind the scenes. I'm the geeky one (but so far in knowledge compared to most people in the Mac and PC forums).

I'm the first one's my friends call and often, but not always, I can solve their problems by doing research and asking for forum help if I don't already have the information. I DO know my limits though, and know when to stop if I'm over my head.

You don't say how old she is but perhaps she would respond around the personal privacy issue and being free of advertisements, etc. While she uses her devices. It can be seen as being cool not being manipulated by companies nor being tracked online. But it can be an uphill battle too! I decided to learn about my Mac after I spent well over a thousand dollars in 1997 to pay a consultant to help me configure my Mac and peripherals for my photography business. (Things were more complicated then, installers weren't as 'intelligent' etc. Just getting the first consumer Epson photo inkjet printer and an Apple LaserWriter 360 to coexist took him hours of effort.) After watching him work (and begging him to teach me the basics.

He was determined to keep me dependent on him) I made up my mind to never be in that position again. I later realized that my 'consultant' was doing a fair amount of on-the-job learning at my considerable expense! And he had a going concern that was used by businesses in my rural community. Very interesting. I don't think you're the only one that has been played by their 'consultant.'

Glad you became wise to him. I try to learn as much as I need to keep my equipment purring; enough for my basic needs: photo editing, writing, graphics. I'm reaching the age, though, that a lot of this stuff has started bugging me. The internet has gotten so commercial and annoying (I started using the internet pre-browser (listservs) when I was in education. It wasn't perfect, but nothing popped in your face, or slid over, under, sideway across the page;, wiggles, autoplay, etc). But I digress.sorry.

I am 63 and my wife will be 71 in February. I try to make our Macs serve us rather than the other way around. We do almost everything digitally; paper has virtually disappeared from our lives. We researched and booked travel and local hotel/flat rentals online for our last four trips to Europe.

There are relatively easy methods to make the Internet a nice playground. When I see what some of my friends endure it makes my skin crawl (especially those who use Windows with minimal tech knowledge). Our lives would certainly be diminished without the Internet and our Macs, iPhones and iPads.

We don't live on our digital devices; we use them so our lives are easier and enriched. When all is said an done, I think that we are very fortunate to be living in these times.