Apple Recalls, Fixes Security Update

Following a monster security update issued earlier this week, some users of Mac OS X 10.4 discovered that Apple's patches also brought unforeseen consequences: 64-bit applications such as Mathematica no longer worked. To rectify the situation, Apple has issued a new release of the update.

News of the problems surfaced after Wolfram Research received reports that its Mathematica 5.2 software was rendered unusable following installation of the 18MB update.

"Due to an error on the part of Apple, this update prevents any 64-bit-native application from running," the company wrote in a note to customers. "In particular, this means that Mathematica 5.2 will not run on any G5 system if it has installed this Security Update."

The refreshed update replaces a library that was accidentally shipped as 32-bit only. "Security Update 2005-007 v1.1 provides a combined 32- and 64-bit version of LibSystem to replace the 32-bit version that was delivered in v1.0. No other changes have been made in version 1.1," Apple said.

All users who have already installed the August security update should download and install the fixed version, Apple says, which is available now from Software Update.