OS X 10.7.4 Lion update fixes FileVault bug, includes Safari 5.1.6 [u]

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Apple on Wednesday released OS X 10.7.4, the latest update to the company's Lion operating system which brings various improvements including a fix for a recently-exposed FileVault bug.

The update, which is recommended for all OS X Lion users, patches a security bug found in certain configurations of the previous 10.7.3 version that allowed for inadvertent access to user passwords.

First discovered earlier in May, the bug allows for the creation of a system-wide debug file that displays user credentials including passwords in plain text. Fortunately, the flaw only affects users who carried over their FileVault settings from OS X Snow Leopard when making the switch to Lion.

The log-in data can also be viewed by booting a Mac into FireWire target disk mode and opening the drive as a disk or by using the superuser shell to mount mount the main system partition after booting into the Lion recovery partition.

Also included in the update is a fix for an issue that caused the "Reopen windows when logging back in" box to be perpetually checked when users logged out or shut down their Macs.

Logout fix


From the 10.7.4 release notes:
The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes fixes that:

Resolve an issue in which the "Reopen windows when logging back in" setting is always enabled.
Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards.
Addresses permission issues that may be caused if you use the Get Info inspector function "Apply to enclosed items?" on your home directory. For more information, see this article.
Improve Internet sharing of PPPoE connections.
Improve using a proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file.
Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to an SMB server.
Improve printing to an SMB print queue.
Improve performance when connecting to a WebDAV server.
Enable automatic login for NIS accounts.
Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
Improve the reliability of binding and logging into Active Directory accounts.
The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes Safari 5.1.6, which contains stability improvements.
Users who purchased a Mac with Lion pre-installed are not affected by the 10.7.3 issue as Apple's FileVault 2 is not affected.

Lion Update


The 729.6MB update can be downloaded via Sofware Update or through Apple's Support Downloads webpage.

Update: OS X 10.7.4 Lion Client Combo, Server and Server Admin Tools updates also ready for download.

Apple also released OS X 10.7.4 Lion (Client Combo) on Wednesday, which features the same fixes mentioned above. The download weighs in at 1.4GB and is available through Software Update or Apple's Support Downloads page.

The Server and Server Combo updates include general improvements to file sharing, migration and security.

Lion Server


From the release notes:
File Sharing
defining custom names for file share points
using Kerberos authentication
emptying trash when using a network mounted home directory
using WebDAV with third-party iOS clients
copying files and Finder information over SMB
general reliability of SMB file services

Profile Manager
enhanced payloads and management settings for iOS and OS X clients
reliability of device enrollments after changing server hostname
configuring VPN management settings
using profiles to join 802.1x networks
installing enterprise iOS applications
setting iCloud, Spotlight and Media Restrictions for OS X clients
Web Server
improved handling of URL redirects and alias matches

Mail Server
improved reliability of SMTP services
prevent overwriting of manually configured greylisted mail servers
The update also includes specific fixes for:
more flexible service data storage
reconfiguring DNS settings when changing hostnames
editing DNS expirations
archival and migration of Open Directory
preserving local accounts during upgrades
Adding to the capabilities of Lion Server is Server Admin 10.7.4 which brings the latest releases of Podcast Composer, Server Admin, Server Monitor, System Image Utility, Workgroup Manager and Xgrid Admin.

The OS X Lion 10.7.4 Server download comes in at 738.71MB while 10.7.4 Server Combo and Server Admin Tools are 1.49GB and 212.4MB, respectively. All three can be downloaded via Software Update or Apple's Support Downloads page.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member


    Saving all the performance related updates to Mountain Lion, are we?

  • Reply 2 of 21
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by palegolas View Post

    Saving all the performance related updates to Mountain Lion, are we?


     


    Such as?

  • Reply 3 of 21
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    Such as?



    It's slow and has a lot of small UI and render glitches, underperforming UI render framerate on some older graphics cards, killed true 32-bit graphics for some old graphics cards (including mine).


     


    10.6 focused on optimising. While 10.7 was a half hearted 10.8 in my opinion.


    I hope they have a stronger focus on low level optimising again in 10.8.

  • Reply 4 of 21


    Perhaps the fact that 10.7 machines consistently have inactive memory that is over half the total memory...


    While you'd think the system would automatically give this back - it MAY but it does so in such small increments that it slows the system to a crawl...


     


    Just set a new user up on a MacBook Pro (Late 2011) with Migration Assistant, when I logged in as the user, I noticed it was crawling. Activity monitor had 2.3GB of inactive out of 4GB total and ~150MB free memory! This is only running Finder! On a fresh machines with 10.7.3 installed, I hope 10.7.4 addresses this.

  • Reply 5 of 21
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    Anybody know if this update to Safari removes the 'Activity' option under the 'Window' section in the Menu Bar? (as occurred in Developer Preview 3 of Mountain Lion)
  • Reply 6 of 21
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post

    Anybody know if this update to Safari removes the 'Activity' option under the 'Window' section in the Menu Bar? (as occurred in Developer Preview 3 of Mountain Lion)


     


    I hate that. Why'd they do that?

  • Reply 7 of 21
    lennylenny Posts: 85member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post



    Anybody know if this update to Safari removes the 'Activity' option under the 'Window' section in the Menu Bar? (as occurred in Developer Preview 3 of Mountain Lion)


    No, it doesn't. The "Activity" is still there. 


    I was hoping for Safari 5.2 update...

  • Reply 8 of 21
    gdoggdog Posts: 224member


    UPDATE CHANGED MY SCREEN RESOLUTION ON IMAC.  NOW I ONLY HAVE 2 CHOICES 1920 X 1200 AND  960 X 600?

  • Reply 9 of 21
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gdog View Post

    UPDATE CHANGED MY SCREEN RESOLUTION ON IMAC.  NOW I ONLY HAVE 2 CHOICES 1920 X 1200 AND  960 X 600?




    That'd be HiDPI preparation.

  • Reply 10 of 21
    ghostface147ghostface147 Posts: 1,629member


    Well crud.  It changed my login screen back to that ugly default gray background.  Even when I go here /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/Resource and looked for the file NSTexturedFullScreenBackgroundColor.png, it shows the modified picture I was using.  Hopefully someone finds a way to fix this.   

  • Reply 11 of 21
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lenny View Post


    No, it doesn't. The "Activity" is still there. 


    I was hoping for Safari 5.2 update...



     


    Thanks, Lenny.


     


    You remember how your mother always used to tell you how awesome you were?


     


    She was correct.


     


    Proceeding with update now...

  • Reply 12 of 21
    moxommoxom Posts: 326member


    Resolve an issue in which the "Reopen windows when logging back in" setting is always enabled.


     


    Thanks!! 

  • Reply 13 of 21
    hkzhkz Posts: 190member


    Wonder if this fixes the weird bug I have of closing an app on one screen and the title of that app highlighted in blue on another screen. Very weird and it didn't start happening until 1.0.7.2 for me.

  • Reply 14 of 21
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by joelbruner View Post


    Perhaps the fact that 10.7 machines consistently have inactive memory that is over half the total memory...


    While you'd think the system would automatically give this back - it MAY but it does so in such small increments that it slows the system to a crawl...


     


    Just set a new user up on a MacBook Pro (Late 2011) with Migration Assistant, when I logged in as the user, I noticed it was crawling. Activity monitor had 2.3GB of inactive out of 4GB total and ~150MB free memory! This is only running Finder! On a fresh machines with 10.7.3 installed, I hope 10.7.4 addresses this.



     


    That's an architectural design approach that Linux and Windows also share. This is a conscience choice that shared memory and shared libraries cached in memory for apps to leverage will actually improve scalability and performance overall.


     


    When applications by 3rd parties fully leverage this properly their applications respond as intended. 3rd party devs are the lowest common denominator holding back performance in this equation.

  • Reply 15 of 21
    chabigchabig Posts: 641member


    Right. The memory is working as it should. The problem is people who think they understand it better than the engineers who built it. I doubt that the machine is "slowing to a crawl". If it is, it's something other than memory.

  • Reply 16 of 21
    crunchcrunch Posts: 180member


    I've been using 16GB of RAM in my late-2011 MBP and after a few days without rebooting, eventually OS X Lion likes to cache quite a bit of it. Nice to see it gets used I guess. lol


     


    BTW: If you're using Safari 5.2 on Lion, do an un-install of 5.2 using the uninstaller that you hopefully downloaded before upgrading to 10.7.4. This will make for a smooth transition from Safari 5.1.5 to 5.1.6, the latter of which is automatically installed, because it is part of 10.7.4's package! Then, when you come back from reboot, hit Software Update again and you will find that there is a Safari 5.1.7 update. Again, this is after you install 10.7.4. After that second Safari 5.1.x bump, you can go back to Safari 5.2 DP3 that you un-installed before updating to 10.7.4 and all should be well. :)

  • Reply 17 of 21
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    gdog wrote: »
    UPDATE CHANGED MY SCREEN RESOLUTION ON IMAC.  NOW I ONLY HAVE 2 CHOICES 1920 X 1200 AND  960 X 600?

    Did it also do something to your caps-lock? ;-)
  • Reply 18 of 21


    When you support hundreds of Macs but start getting Lion only machines and performance drops off compared to 10.6 and 8GB isn't enough to keep beach balls and stalls away, then you know something's not right. Using the same software that worked fine in 10.6 but on 10.7 it's running out of free memory its pretty obvious and doesn't involve me thinking I know more than an engineer. It's a simple comparison.


     


    This vid illustrates how inactive is released only in the smallest of increments until I run purge and clean it all out, it was pretty slow doling out free men in the smallest increments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB-kdZtGAgM


     


    And the situation I mentioned above I was running Apple's Migration Assistant only, so can't scapegoat 3rd party ISVs there... yeesh not saying the sky is falling, but there's a bit less headroom...

  • Reply 19 of 21
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member


    Possibly this comes from a change to 64 byte computing. Active memory is basically shared memory, memory which is shared between all apps ( all of whom think they have the entire address space to play with as far as I know). Shared memory seems to belong to all apps, but is in fact, shared. When an app uses some shared memory in a unique fashion it is copied into his address space ( copy on write) properly. Therefore active memory is kept in RAM to facilitate this - for most apps the private memory is quite low. 

  • Reply 20 of 21
    vaporlandvaporland Posts: 358member


    This update is the best news since Lion was released. I did a clean install (due to numerous issues caused by the permissions bug) and my 2008 MBP is running 20% faster. I downloaded the full installer from the Mac App Store. Took a little more time, but well worth it - my Core 2 Duo is like a whole new machine now!


     


    Safari works like it used to - i.e., fast! No more spinning pizza of death. The whole interface is snappy and quick. Kudos to Apple for cleaning up the turgid mess that was Lion - now its a sleek cat.

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