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Mac versus Windows vulnerability stats for 2007

post #1 of 18
12/22/07 at 5:05am
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Quote:
The year 2007 has been an interesting year that brought us improved security with Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard (10.5). But to get some perspective of how many publicly known holes found in these two operating systems, I’ve compiled all the security flaws in Mac OS X and Windows XP and Vista and placed them side by side. This is significant because it shows a trend that can give us a good estimate for how many flaws we can expect to find in the coming months. The more monthly flaws there are in the historical trend, the more likely it is that someone will find a hole to exploit in the future. For example back in April of this year, hackers took over a fully patched Macbook and won $10,000 plus the Macbook they hacked.

I used vulnerability statistics from an impartial third party vendor Secunia and I broke them down by Windows XP flaws, Vista flaws, and Mac OS X flaws. Since Secunia doesn’t offer individual numbers for Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.4, I merged the XP and Vista vulnerabilities so that we can compare Vista + XP flaws to Mac OS X. In case you’re wondering how 19 plus 12 could equal 23, this is because there are many overlapping flaws that is shared between XP and Vista so those don’t get counted twice just as I don’t count something that affects Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 twice.



Source: ZDNet
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post #2 of 18
12/22/07 at 7:50pm
And?

When Apple sees a flaw it gets fixed quickly. When Microsoft sees on it lingers on for months or years until the next major security update or service pack.

And there was, and is, a shitload of controversy surrounding that supposed MacBook hack referenced here. They still haven't, to my knowledge, shared with anyone—except for one very bad reporter—exactly what they did.
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post #3 of 18
12/22/07 at 7:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze View Post
And?

When Apple sees a flaw it gets fixed quickly. When Microsoft sees on it lingers on for months or years until the next major security update or service pack.
Really? Can you cite this please? I find it hard to believe any company would do this... know there is a flaw and not fix it.
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post #4 of 18
12/23/07 at 2:50pm
Apple only has to eat it's own dogfood, while Microsoft has to eat everyone elses'. I'm not sticking up for one or the other, but when MS makes a patch, it has to make sure it doesn't crash several hundred million computers....
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post #5 of 18
12/24/07 at 2:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bahama.Llama View Post
Really? Can you cite this please? I find it hard to believe any company would do this... know there is a flaw and not fix it.

All you have to do is look at how often MS releases patches compared to how many security flaws there are. Once in a blue moon when a really big one comes along and people get up in arms about it MS releases a patch fairly quickly but most of the time they're all rolled up into the service packs.
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post #6 of 18
12/24/07 at 1:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze View Post
All you have to do is look at how often MS releases patches compared to how many security flaws there are. Once in a blue moon when a really big one comes along and people get up in arms about it MS releases a patch fairly quickly but most of the time they're all rolled up into the service packs.
Weak
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post #7 of 18
12/24/07 at 1:55pm
Well you spend an hour googling for it then. I'm not going to play research librarian for you.
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post #8 of 18
12/24/07 at 3:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze View Post
Well you spend an hour googling for it then. I'm not going to play research librarian for you.
The burden of proof is in the hands of the accuser. *shrug*
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post #9 of 18
12/24/07 at 6:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze View Post
All you have to do is look at how often MS releases patches compared to how many security flaws there are. Once in a blue moon when a really big one comes along and people get up in arms about it MS releases a patch fairly quickly but most of the time they're all rolled up into the service packs.
i think you should look up Patch Tuesday
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post #10 of 18
12/25/07 at 1:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Anaconda View Post
i think you should look up Patch Tuesday
Geez Conda... you had to ruin all of my fun!
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post #11 of 18
12/25/07 at 5:48pm
Yes, I know about patch tuesday. And MS still takes their damn time getting major patches out even with patch tuesday.
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post #12 of 18
12/26/07 at 12:01am
How about a ~10 year old data handling bug in Microsoft Jet, the database engine behind Access 97-2003? I wish I still had the bug ID--I encountered it when updating an Access-based program that shared data between a PDA and a desktop. The PDA handled the data correctly (date? I can't remember now), but Jet didn't and it caused program crashes whenever the data was changed on the PDA.

Now I realize that this is not a security vulnerability, but it's still a bug. The vendor of the API which I was using contacted Microsoft on multiple occasions, only to be told that it wasn't financially feasible to fix it. It would apparently require a major rewrite of some of a particular module of Jet and, with Office 2007 on the way in less than a year (this was summer of 2006), it wasn't worth it.

That's bullcrap and another reason why I avoid Microsoft products at all costs.

Best security record IMO? Trustix Secure Linux. I got a security patch less than 20 minutes after they were notified about it.
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post #13 of 18
12/28/07 at 2:22am
Windows
Pro = Everyone uses it
Con = Everyone uses it

Macintosh
Pro = Fewer people use it
Con = Fewer people use it
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post #14 of 18
12/28/07 at 1:04pm
I love this... facts are released and the fanboys come out of the walls. Its nice to see I'm not the one defending the minority again.
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post #15 of 18
12/28/07 at 2:16pm
*nix.
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post #16 of 18
1/3/08 at 4:46am
MS doesn't just wait and release a patch. They tend to release fixes along the way. I wish they would release an annual patch of fixes. It would make it easier to complete the OS installation on new machines or completing a clean install. It's a pain downloading and installing all of the fixes that have been released since the last Service Pack.
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post #17 of 18
1/8/08 at 8:01pm
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post #18 of 18
1/8/08 at 9:06pm
lol kakaze does own a powerbook.... and i would assume he wants to defend apple, but he is right in some ways and wrong in others.


MS doesnt release patches quick enough but not because they are lazy and slow, they have to worry about a much larger user base compared to the amount of people that use macs (as someone previously mentioned in the thread)


But i have to say i agree with Darq
*nix
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