FaceTime for Mac Beta’s “Security Hole” Has Already Been Fixed

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For a few hours yesterday, the Internet lit up with reports originating from Macwelt.de that there was a serious security hole in the FaceTime for Mac beta.

Frankly, calling it a “security hole” seemed even at the time a tad hyperbolic. Basically, the hole in FaceTime for Mac beta meant that once a user had logged into his account, that user’s AppleID and password could be altered within the app by anyone with physical access to the computer, without any other security checks.

I mean, okay, I guess that’s worth fixing… but it’s like saying my wallet has a security hole when I leave it on my girlfriend’s coffee table, when it might be more appropriate to say that my girlfriend’s loose ethics and crippling shopaholism was the real problem.

Either way, Apple’s decided to fix the problem with a server-side workaround, and it works, albeit a bit clumsily: if you click “View Account” in FaceTime for Mac now, it does absolutely nothing.

It’s obviously just a workaround, so expect a proper FaceTime for Mac patch to shoot through Software Update in the near future. Much ado about nothing in my opinion.

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