Apple releases OS X 10.10.5 to the public

Security problems in Apache, Bluetooth, CloudKit, the OS kernel and other apps and services are also fortified.

Apple released OS X 10.10.5 on Thursday morning to fix bugs and to improve security and performance. OS X El Capitan is slated to hit this fall. These are essentially the same improvements that the company had released to developers and public beta testers a few days ago.

Apple has come out with what could be its last major update to OS X 10.10 before the release of OS X 10.11 “El Capitan” next month. In a tweet sent out late August. 13, however, Esser said that while Apple’s OS X 10.10.5 addressed some issues, it made another security problem even worse. Shortly after the vulnerability was publicly disclosed, adware distributors started exploiting it in the wild so they could install potentially unwanted applications without requiring end users to enter system passwords.

Apart from the above mentioned details, the OS X 10.10.5 update also fixes a very critical flaw that can allow malware to gain root access to the Mac, so we strongly urge all of our readers, and Mac users in general, to update straight away to this release without giving it a second thought. The update brings with it several security fixes that among other things fixes the user interface spoofing while visiting a malicious website. You can download it by visiting the App Store. Additionally, OS X 10.10.5 should offer improved security, another key feature Apple has been working on, and tweaks to compatibility and stability. Below you can read the detailed changelog to see all the new additions in these updates.

Also on Thursday, Apple issued what was likely the final security update for OS X Mountain Lion, patching 33 vulnerabilities in the three-year-old operating system.