Latest Apple Updates Still Leave Out Snow Leopard

Has Apple ended support for its OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system? There's no official word, but Snow Leopard has once again been left out of Apple's latest software updates, increasing the pressure to upgrade on users of the nearly five-year-old operating system.

Apple released updates yesterday (June 30) that included iOS devices and Apple TV, but it was OS X that got the most patches, including updates to Safari, a security update for OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, and an update to OS X 10.9 Mavericks (which includes the Safari update). The Lion and Mountain Lion updates come in two parts: one containing the security updates, and another containing the Safari update.

he Safari updates, 7.0.5 and 6.1.5, are for the browser's Lion and Mountain Lion versions and include patches for 10 remote-code-execution (RCE) flaws that allow an attacker to seize control of a given computer and remotely control it. Criminals often exploit RCE flaws by creating malicious Web pages that secretly launch exploits when someone visits them.

Two more patches address memory-leakage flaws, which, if exploited (again by luring users to malicious Web pages), would give snoops access to local file content. The final two patches address domain-name-spoofing flaws, which would let a malicious website disguise its URL to look like a benign URL. The full details on the Safari updates are available at Apple's website.
The iOS update, 7.1.2, is available for iPhone 4 and later, iPod Touch 5th generation and later, and iPad 2 and later. This sizable security update includes 29 Web-based RCE patches, as well as some bugs that would let apps cause the device to abruptly restart or remotely execute code.
The update also fixes a Siri bug by which someone could access a locked phone's contacts list without unlocking the device. When this partial lockscreen bypass was discovered, Apple tried to pass this off as a feature. Now, however, it's listed as a bug and patched in the update. Apple's website has the full list of iOS updates.
 Apple TV gets an update to 6.1.2, available for second-generation Apple TV devices and later. The updates include some patches for vulnerabilities that would let rogue apps remotely execute code, and some memory handling issues. The full list of patches is up on Apple's website.