Vulnerability statistics for Mac and Windows (George Ou, ZDNet)

[swag]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=165&tag=nl.e539

excerpts:

. . .
I make no claims on which operating system is better. You look at the data and you be the judge.




The data is clear, and Apple has a lot more vulnerabilities of every kind ranging from moderately critical to extremely critical. While Windows had some months with more security disclosures, they are more spread out while Apple tends to release mega-advisories with dozens of vulnerabilities at a time. There were seven months where Apple disclosed more a dozen or more highly critical vulnerabilities and August 2005 saw nearly three dozen of them. One of the most severe zero day exploits for Mac OS X disclosed this month with a working proof-of-concept has yet to be patched so we'll have to wait and see how long it takes Apple to release a patch.

Microsoft on the other hand seems to let some moderately critical and even one highly critical vulnerability go unpatched for more than a year. I've hammered Microsoft for this issue in the past and Microsoft has responded to me that they are clarifying some of these issues with Secunia because some of the unpatched vulnerabilities may be moot. I'm still waiting for Microsoft's detailed explanation on these unpatched vulnerabilities.