Apple yesterday released a mega update for Mac OS X operating system that addresses 134 separate vulnerabilities all at once. This is the fifth such patch since the Snow Leopard debuted in August 2009, and tips the scale at 644.5 MB for systems already upgraded to OS X 10.6.4 (the "combo update" for a vanilla install of Snow Leopard weights in at 977.2 megabytes). According to the Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro, the actual download size varies depending on different machines.

Of course, the large number of security vulnerabilities is somewhat inflated by the patches for Adobe's Flash Player. At 55 vulnerabilities, this accounted for 41 percent of the total updates. Regardless, users might want to ensure that they are connected to a broadband connection, and not at the local café or tethered on a smartphone, when they try to update their Macs. I have some thoughts on the number of Mac-specific security patches, which you can read in today's commentary. In the meantime, Mac users can read more about Mac OS X v10.6.5 and Security Update 2010-007 here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at PC Mag
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at the Washington Post