Apple is finally offering the Flashback malware removal tool that was released to OS X 10.7 Lion last month to OS X 10.5 Leopard users. Also available is a tool to disable out-of-date versions of the Adobe Flash plug-in for the Safari browser.
The updates come in two packages -- the Flashback Removal Security Update and the Leopard Security Update 2012-003. Both packages are available as separate downloads and also via Software Update.
The Flashback removal tool is designed to remove all know variants of the Flashback malware that netted over 600,000 Macs into a botnet last month.
The other update disables outdated versions of the Adobe Flash Player. Since vulnerabilities in Adobe’s Flash Player is one of the commonest ways of spreading malware, running an outdated version of this plugin in not recommended. However, as pointed out by Ed Bott over on ZDNet, this tool doesn't work in the way that it was initially reported. It only disables the Flash Player installed on the Mac if its version number is earlier than 10.1.102.64, a version first released more than 18 months ago.
The reason for this is that beginning October 2010, Apple stopped including the Flash Player with new Macs and required users to get it and any updates directly from Adobe.
If you're not sure when you last updated the Flash Player plug-in, take a trip over to Adobe's Flash Player installer page and check for a new update.
The easiest way to bring Mac updates to your system is to fire up Software Update and let it bring in all the updates your system needs. Depending on how long it has been since you last did this, it may be quick, or it may take some time to complete. Either way, it’s something that you should do.
By default, Mac OS X doesn’t check for and install updates automatically (as is the default for Windows), and as such getting the patches to affected machines has to wait for users to apply the patches manually. However, if you’re interested, there is a way to get Mac OS X to check for updates automatically. It might be a good idea to turn this on and set it to check for updates on a weekly basis.
