Apple today released Security Update July 2002, an update for Mac OS X users available for download through the Software Update pane in System Preferences.
“Security Update July 2002 includes the updated components, Apache v1.3.26, mod_ssl v2.8.9 and OpenSSH v3.4p1, which provide increased security to prevent unauthorized access to applications, servers, and the operating system,” said Apple.
OpenSSH is a UNIX network connectivity tool that encrypts all traffic to help eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other network-level attacks, according to its developers. An alert was recently circulated which advised that certain versions of OpenSSH contained a bug in the “ChallengeResponseAuthentication” code that could be exploited remotely. The 3.4p1 version corrects that and other issues.
The security update is a 1.6MB installation. It does not require a restart in order to work.