How secure is Apple’s Snow Leopard?

Apple, which always shrieks through the rooftop finding holes in Windows PCs’ security, has added animalware to its Mac OS X. The OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” is touted to come with inbuilt checks to catch malware specific to Mac. This Snow Leopard anti-malware system seems to be connected to the downloaded validation system used by Mac OS X, which is called File Quarantine. Apparently, File Quarantine is effective only for files which were downloaded via the Internet through home-grown applications like Apple Safari, Apple Mail or Apple iChat.

The software major has advertised that its new operating system can ward off malware and cyber attacks. The Snow Leopard comes with built-in antivirus protection, execution control based on hardware, and stronger checks against memory corruption attacks. Apple says that this new OS protects users against hacking techniques that also include “sandboxing”. Users can also download the Apple security updates automatically and install these with a single click.

The Snow Leopard also comes with features like increased parental control and password assistance for the users. The security response from Apple comes in the face of the increase in malware specifically targeted at Mac OS X. Trojan variants started being distributed, which even cracked Adobe Photoshop CS4 applications.
However, Apple’s fanfare about security readiness and protection has not been lapped up. Critics point out that Snow Leopard does not come with a full-fledged anti-virus solution and is not good enough to remove any malware already existing in the system. Also, Apple’s firewall is turned off by default and cannot be configured by most third-part solutions. The software updates are not automatic and users are not made aware of what current levels of protection exists.

While Apple’s XProtect is useful for programs like Entourage, Safari, Mail, Firefox, Thunderbird, it does not secure other programs like Skype, Adium, BitTorrent and Apple’s Finder as well as USB drives and shared network volumes.

Fonte : http://www.hackedinfo.com