OS X

As at least one poor soul found out the hard way, there's a very good reason that Apple's latest OS X, El Capitan, doesn't let you use an emoji in your login password.

Apple doesn't have the same rule with OS X Yosemite. A user on Stack Exchange's Ask Different forum explained that he had used an emoji in his password on Yosemite — and then wasn't able to log in to his account. He originally posted about it back in August, but it's a PSA worth repeating.

Just days after patching the DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE vulnerability with a new OS X point release, Apple's desktop operating system has been hit with yet another zero-day exploit that would allow an attacker to gain root access without using a password.

The exploit was discovered by Italian developer Luca Todesco, who relies on a combination of attacks — including a null pointer dereference in OS X's IOKit — to drop a proof-of-concept payload into a root shell. It affects every version of OS X Yosemite, but seems to have been mitigated in OS X El Capitan, which is nearing release.

L33tdawg: Corey Kallenberg from Legbacore will be at #HITBGSEC in October to present an updated version of this research

Macs can still be successfully attacked using some of the same firmware vulnerabilities affecting many Windows PCs, a new proof-of-concept worm is said to demonstrate.

Hackers are exploiting a serious zero-day vulnerability in the latest version of Apple's OS X so they can perform drive-by attacks that install malware without requiring victims to enter system passwords, researchers said.

Apple on Thursday released a second beta build of its upcoming OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite update to developers for testing, including what appears to be only minor tweaks and bug fixes.

The latest beta, build 14F19a, comes a little over two weeks after the first beta version was pushed out to developers and users signed up for Apple's public beta program.

Like the first beta, today's build brings minor tweaks and bug fixes aimed at improving system stability, app compatibility and security.

You can bypass Apple's space-age security and gain administrator-level privileges on an OS X Yosemite Mac using code that fits in a tweet.

Yosemite, aka version 10.10, is the latest stable release of the Mac operating system, so a lot of people are affected by this vulnerability. The security bug can be exploited by a logged-in attacker or malware on the computer to gain total unauthorized control of the Mac. It is documented here by iOS and OS X guru Stefan Esser.

Is almost nine months long enough to fix a serious security vulnerability that hackers could use to steal passwords and plant malware undetected on computers and smartphones?

You would certainly like to think so, wouldn't you?

Apple has released the latest update for OS X Yosemite, version 10.10.1. It contains a number of fixes and improvements to Yosemite You can find OS X 10.10.1 in the Updates section of the Mac App Store.

This update fixes Wi-Fi issues with Yosemite, as well as connections with Microsoft Exchange servers.

A white-hat hacker from Sweden says he's found a serious security hole in Apple's Yosemite OS X that could allow an attacker to take control of your computer.

Emil Kvarnhammar, a hacker at Swedish security firm Truesec, calls the vulnerability "rootpipe" and has explained how he found it and how you can protect against it.

Many of Windows 10′s best features showed up in Mac OS X years ago, including virtual desktops, Expose-like window management, and a notification center. Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite has some other ideas Microsoft should copy for version 10 of its own operating system, too.

All operating systems copy from each other, and that’s a good thing. This isn’t about who invented what first — it’s about improving the operating systems billions of people use every day.