Hello, all! I have a question. What version of Mac OS more secure (10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 or, maybe, 10.8)? I'm not sure that last version is better (more secure). I ask - what version have minimum exploits? Thanks 🙂
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What Version Of Mac OS More Secure?
- Thread starter max87
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Only 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 are getting security patches any longer. 10.7 and 10.8 have Filevault full disk encryption, which is a nice security feature.
What makes you think the latest OS X is any less secure? Apple has always made security improvements in each OS X release lately.
You got GateKeeper, automatic security updates in the background, sandboxing, "xprotect" anti-malware feature, and finally Kernel ASLR. All major positive security improvements that you won't get in previous OS X versions.
Dolorian
macrumors 65816
The latest version is the most secure. As a general rule known security exploits in the OS are fixed with subsequent updates. The latest version also has some additional features that have been mentioned already that enhance security and which are not available in previous versions.
Thats true, but on the other hand, newer operating systems have more code, and more code also means more possibilities for exploiting.
That said, I haven't seen any evidence revealing Mountain Lion to be any less secure than the older operating systems.
That could go either way, you could also say older OS that doesn't get any more testing/QA will have more exploit possibilities as well, like the old unpatched XP systems getting exploited in mere seconds without any user intervention (virtually impossible on OS X/*unix and latest Windows OSes starting with Vista).
The impact could also be mitigated in a way that OS has newer code replacing old code that's more resistant against exploits. Experience and wisdom can lead to better security policies, such as Microsoft making massive security improvements in Windows ever since Vista came out.
It's all about the core functions of the OS, how it was built to be resistant. There is a strong reason that OS X and all *nix based OS doesn't get any viruses that spreads easily.
Nothing in the universe is immune, anything is hackable. The question is how long and how difficult it is to do as much as damage as possible. Both Windows and *nix lately have become very difficult to do either quickly and easily. That's why the exploits have shifted to the web-based instead of OS based, such as Java's applets, Flash, and so on. Instead of massive damage, criminals are more focused on identity thefts and so on.
Do they? Apple has been deprecating and removing lots of APIs and frameworks in order to simplify OS X. Cocoa-Java library, Rosetta, and all sorts of NSObjects have been done away with. Even Carbon has now been deprecated in 10.8, which means you can expect it to be removed in a future version.