Macintosh users should brace for another round of updates as Apple releases Security Update 2009 – 003 and Mac OS X v10.5.8.

The new updates address about 18 security vulnerabilities. Most of the identified vulnerabilities are considered critical and could have the potential of actually being exploited. For example, a vulnerability in the ColorSync profile could mean that opening a malicious image file will result in someone taking over your computer. Other similar flaws have been plugged with the new update. Among these is a potentially catastrophic vulnerability regarding AppleTalk response packets maliciously encoded that can execute arbitrary code execution.

You can access the update by visiting http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/.

By this time, Microsoft has already released the updates that will fix vulnerabilities in some of its products. Some of those that are affected by these fixes are the vulnerability in DirectShow that was first mentioned in May and also zero-day vulnerability that was only noticed in the last few days.

it should be noted that three of the six bulletins that Microsoft issued directly affect Windows and are considered critical fixes for both Windows XP and Windows 2000. Actually, even the first one, which has been given the Windows 1 tag has been identified as critical on practically all Windows platforms. The second flaw is for the aforementioned DirectX capability. The last one, on the other hand is critical on Windows XP and moderate threat on Windows Server 2003. The remaining three vulnerabilities are considered not very crucial but still should be addressed though.

So if you guys haven’t installed these new updates yet and you didn’t activate automatic updating, go and visit the Microsoft site and download these fixes.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now available again after it was delayed because of issues found with users who have Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System in their computers.

According to Microsoft, the one-file update is 316.4 MB. They are recommending that those who only need to update one computer should just consider using Windows Update as it will be smaller there.

Going back to the bug with DRMS, a hotfix has been released to fix the error and it is recommended that the hotfix is applied before updating to SP3. The funny thing here is that when you click on the hotfix, you get a 404 error, which means that the hotfix is not there. Hopefully, this error has been rectified by the time you read this.

Microsoft has postponed the planned April 29 release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP because of a reported compatibility issue.

According to the Company, the issue stems from an incompatibility between the new Service Pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System or RMS. The same compatibility issue is also reportedly present with Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1.

RMS is a retail chain management solution that is made available to small and medium-sized customers. What Microsoft has done is to put in place a filtering system that will prevent the update from being downloaded in machines that carry RMS.

Reportedly, a fix is already available and is being tested before deployment.

With the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, there is speculation that it will further slow down the public’s adoption of Microsoft’s new Windows Vista.

The new Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 was released last Feb. 19 without much fanfare, maybe as a way to not really give too much of the public’s attention to XP at this point when the company is still trying to sell the advantages of upgrading to the Vista OS. The problem is that with SP3, XP has become more stable and reliable and with a larger installed base, this will make it doubly hard for Microsoft to encourage people to go with vista, which is still considered as having many quirks and instabilities. SP3’s introduction has basically brought a Catch 22 situation for Microsoft. And the company’s decision to stop supporting XP in the near future will only further alienate its customers.