Apple's Automatic Security Update for OS X is About Network Time Protocol

Apple Inc. has released its first ever automated update for OS X users. The critical update is about Network Time Protocol aka NTP. Apple on Monday released the update addressing it as “critical security issue” as the vulnerability was said to be discovered that could affect users running OS X Yosemite, Mavericks and Mountain Lion. It is believed that Google security team discovered the vulnerability earlier this month and now Apple has already released the security update for the benefit of its users.


Apple has provided #-Link-Snipped-# on its support website. According to the information, the vulnerability enables the attacker to trigger the buffer overflows that could be utilized to execute malicious code on the victim Macintosh system. Department of Homeland Security and Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute announced the bugs on Friday and identified that products of several technology companies, including Apple might be vulnerable.
Users need to verify the ntpd versions of their Mac to ensure system security. To do this, open terminal and type what /usr/sbin/ntpd. On installing the update, users should get versions as:

Mountain Lion: ntp-77.1.1
Mavericks: ntp-88.1.1
Yosemite: ntp-92.5.1

It must be noted that Apple’s previous fixes require user intervention to install the updates. However, this one is an automated update so if “Install system data files and security updates” is checked, the system would download the update automatically. If not, users can find the update via Software Update. Apple spokesman Bill Evans informed that the company has got no information if any Macs were attacked because of this vulnerability. He also added that the latest update is seamless and doesn't require to restart the system.

Via Apple releases critical security update for OS X NTP services vulnerability | AppleInsider