Apple Inc. (AAPL) Users Gets Latest Shock in the Form of Dangerous Shellshock Bug

First they sat on their new iPhones and bent them, now Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) users are getting the latest shock to their once unwavering fandom in the form of a dangerous new bug that poses a particular risk to Mac users. As Bloomberg correspondent Hans Nichols reported, a new bug circulating poses a particular threat to device’s running Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s OS X operating system, though most users should be safe.

“[…]most OS X users are not at risk. Only if you have downloaded something special and you’ve altered the security configurations on your machine. For the most part this does not affect mobile technology. This is about The Internet of Things. This is about computers talking to computers, this is about backdoor infrastructure, and it really is about the backdoor architecture that underlies Unix,” Nichols said.

OS X, which is a Unix-based operating system, is vulnerable as a result, as is Linux. The bug is potentially devastating in that it gives the hacker total control over the user’s system and could allow them to install malware on it and use the affected machine to attack others; unlike the highly publicized, but rather tame by comparison Heartbleed OpenSSL bug, which primarily stole information like passwords. While Linux has already issued a security update to the threat, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has yet to do so.

The need for a security update comes at a bad time for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), just days after a disastrous iOS 8.0.1 update that confounded numerous iPhones and left them unable to make calls or make use of their Touch ID fingerprint sensor technology. Given that, affected users who also have Macs may be reluctant to update them more than necessary, and could shun the security update, leaving their devices vulnerable.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has rebounded nearly 2% in trading today after falling more than 3.5% yesterday after “bendygate” broke.

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