Bugs & Fixes: Resolving an iPhone camera dust-up

A few weeks ago, a small irregularly-shaped object began appearing in all of the photos and videos taken with my iPhone 5. As the object was always in the same location on an image, I assumed this meant some sort of dust had gotten stuck on the exterior of the lens.

The yellow arrow points to an annoying object that began appearing on all my iPhone 5 photos and videos. (Click to enlarge.)

“No problem,” I said to myself, “I’ll just clean the lens and all will be well, at least for future photos.” I was wrong. None of my attempts to clean the lens had the slightest effect. Eventually, I was forced to conclude that the dust had somehow lodged itself on the interior of the lens—where I could not reach it.

Although I did not hold out much hope by this point, I checked online to see if there was some solution to this problem that I could accomplish myself.

The first thing I discovered was that I was not the only victim of this dust bug. In numerous forums postings (such as here and here and here), many iPhone 5 owners had described exactly the same symptom.
The second thing I discovered was that there is no user-accessible fix. The only solution is to take the phone to an Apple Store and have the Geniuses there deal with it. So that was what I did.

As my iPhone 5 is still covered by AppleCare, everything went as smooth as silk. An Apple Genius confirmed the presence of the dust, went to a computer to check out some further instructions, and came back to announce that I would get an entirely new iPhone, free of charge. A few minutes later, I was walking out of the Apple Store with a new phone. As the dust problem has not returned in subsequent weeks, I am hopeful this is a happy ending to the story.

In other news, Apple has just replaced one of its troubleshooting applications with a redesigned alternative.
You may already be aware that you can check your Mac for internal hardware problems by running Apple Hardware Test (AHT). If your Mac shipped with OS X 10.7 or later, you access this software by restarting your Mac and immediately holding down the D key. If that fails, you may still be able to load AHT by holding down both the Option and D keys at startup. For more details on AHT, including how to load the program on older Macs, check out this Apple support article.

After identifying a possible hardware issue, Apple Diagnostics offers advice as to what it means and what you should do about it.

What you may not be aware is that Apple dumped AHT this past June. New Macs, introduced in June 2013 or later, no longer include the software. Instead, they have an entirely new diagnostic application called, appropriately enough, Apple Diagnostics. You access Diagnostics exactly the same way as you do AHT: Hold down the D key at startup.

As far as I can tell, the main difference between the two applications is that Apple Diagnostics has a more refined and verbose interface than AHT. If a problem is found, Apple Diagnostics also offers detailed advice as to how to proceed. This is consistent with Apple’s ongoing strategy to make its computers more consumer-friendly and easy to use, even for such “techie” tasks as diagnosing hardware problems. 

July's Patch Tuesday fixes 6 critical Microsoft flaws

If you use the Windows operating system, or just about any of the core products offered by Microsoft, it's time to install some crucial updates. Today, Microsoft pushed out seven new security bulletins—along with their accompanying patches—as well as a new policy that affects both third-party apps and those developed by Microsoft itself.

Of the seven security bulletins, six of them are rated Critical, while the remaining one is ranked as Important. The Critical security bulletins affect Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Silverlight, and more. The Important security bulletin addresses a privilege elevation flaw in the Windows Defender security software, so that definitely shouldn’t be ignored.
Microsoft squashes a number of bugs
with seven new security bulletins.
Ross Barrett, senior manager of security engineering at Rapid7, stressed this isn't your typical Patch Tuesday announcement. “Basically everything in the core Microsoft world is affected by one or more of these; every supported OS, every version of MS Office, Lync, Silverlight, Visual Studio and .NET. It’s going to be a busy time for security teams everywhere.”

Tyler Reguly, technical manager of security research and development at Tripwire, said it can be difficult to prioritize patch deployment when almost all of them are Critical. “Luckily, there's safety in the known, so customers should patch Internet Explorer first, a common theme for Microsoft patch drops.”

That means start with MS13-055—the ever-popular cumulative patch update for the Internet Explorer web browser. Reguly feels that MS13-053 should be next in line for attention after MS13-055 because it fixes a vulnerability that is already being exploited in the wild.

Qualys CTO Wolfgang Kandek agrees that MS13-053 and MS13-055 are the top priorities, but in his mind the urgency is flip-flopped. In a blog post, Kandek believes that MS13-053 is the most crucial because it affects all versions of the Windows OS, and addresses vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited. Kandek warns, “The most likely attack vector is through end users browsing a malicious web page or opening an infected document, which results in Remote Code Execution that gives control of the affected machine to the attacker.”

Developers--including Microsoft--will have only 180 days to address critical vulnerabilities.
The other big news from Microsoft is the unveiling of a new policy that places a countdown clock on dealing with vulnerabilities. Craig Young, Tripwire security researcher, explained, “Under the new policy, any app in any of the four [Microsoft] app stores will be given 180 days to resolve reported code execution bugs. This policy applies to 3rd-party developers as well as Microsoft’s own applications and is a great addition to Microsoft’s existing policy of scanning and reviewing app submissions.”

This new policy from Microsoft is significant for businesses that rely on Microsoft platforms and devices. Six months is still a long time for a vulnerability to be in place—especially Critical or Important vulnerabilities that can potentially be exploited to execute malicious code remotely—but the policy shows Microsoft's continued commitment to security. The policy applies to all apps available through the Windows Store, Windows Phone Store, Office Store, or Azure Marketplace."

The policy does not, however, apply to vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited in the wild. Flaws that pose an imminent or ongoing threat are handled with greater urgency. According to a blog post from Microsoft, "In those cases, we’ll work with the developer to have an update available as soon as possible and may remove the app from the store earlier."

If you have Automatic Updates enabled, sit back and relax, but plan on your system rebooting at some point to finish applying all of the necessary patches. If you don’t use Automatic Updates, get cracking! You’ve got a lot of Critical patches to install.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Bugs & Fixes: Fixing AirPort Utility 6.3 problems

Recently, my AirPort network hit a major snag. While my main Base Station continued to function properly, AirPort Utility (on my Mac and iPad) indicated that my three subsidiary AirPort devices had dropped off the network (see image above). Selecting any of the devices in the bottom row resulted in a “Device not found” error. Confirming that these AirPort devices were indeed MIA, none of my wireless devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro) would connect to them. The situation with AirPort Utility on my iPhone was even more disturbing: no AirPort devices showed up at all!

Huh? Everything had been working fine for months. I had made no changes to the AirPort hardware or settings. Why this sudden and unexpected collapse?

One possibility focused on AirPort Utility itself. I had recently updated the application to version 6.3, the version needed to accommodate the new Base Stations with 802.11ac support. However, a software bug seemed more likely to precipitate only a communication failure between AirPort Utility and the AirPort devices, rather than an actual removal of the devices from the network.

This message pops up if I select one of the problem devices.
In any case, a search of the web revealed numerous confirmations of networking problems first appearing after updating to AirPort Utility 6.3. The initial posting of one thread sounded exactly like an instance of my “Device not found” error. More generally, reported problems centered on various failures of AirPort Utility to access AirPort Base Stations.

Several possible solutions were offered, including the obvious one of downgrading back to AirPort Utility 6.2. However, the most recommended suggestion echoed advice that comes from Apple:

1. Go to Network System Preferences on your Mac.
2. Select your active network service (e.g., Wi-Fi or Ethernet) and click the Advanced button.
3. Click the TCP/IP tab.
4. Choose the “Link-local only” option from the Configure IPv6 pop-up menu and click OK.

To fix similar problems with AirPort Utility on iOS devices, Apple’s advice is simpler: Just power down the device and turn it back on.

Unfortunately, I discovered all of this only after I had already made my own attempts to fix the problem. I wound up resetting all four of my AirPort devices and re-entering all their settings. This made for a long and frustrating evening, but eventually I got the entire network working again. As it turned out, my fix did not require any change to the Configure IPv6 setting; it remains set to “Automatically.” This was not a big surprise, as I suspect my problem went beyond what the IPv6 setting addresses.

For my iPhone, Apple’s recommendation to power down the device was what was needed to get its AirPort Utility back on track. After a restart, all my devices were again listed on the phone.

If you are experiencing AirPort problems similar to what I’ve described here, take heart. Your hardware almost certainly does not need any repair or replacement. Based on what I’ve read online and my own experience, at least one of the suggested fixes should remedy your situation.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Cisco fixes serious vulnerabilities in email, Web and content security appliances

Cisco Systems released security patches for its email, Web and content security appliances in order to address vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to execute commands on the underlying OS or disrupt critical processes.

 

The vulnerabilities affect different versions of the Cisco IronPort AsyncOS operating system that's used in the Cisco Content Security Management Appliance, the Cisco Email Security Appliance and the Cisco Web Security Appliance.

 

Releases 7.1 and prior, 7.3, 7.5 and 7.6 of the software in the Cisco Email Security Appliance are affected by three vulnerabilities, one that allows remote attackers to inject and execute commands with elevated privileges through the Web interface and two that could be used to crash the management graphical user interface (GUI) or the IronPort Spam Quarantine service and cause other critical processes to become unresponsive.

 

Exploiting the command injection vulnerability requires authentication via the Web interface with at least a low privilege account, but the denial-of-service vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely without authentication.

 

Users of the 7.1 branch should upgrade to version 7.1.5-016 or later, users of the 7.3 branch should upgrade to version 8.0.0-671 and users of the 7.5 and 7.6 branches should upgrade to 7.6.3-019 or later, Cisco said in a security advisory published Wednesday. Releases in the 8.0 branch are not affected.

 

Branches 7.2 and prior, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9 and 8.0 of the Cisco Content Security Management Appliance software are affected by the same command injection and denial-of-service vulnerabilities as the Cisco Email Security Appliance software.

 

All of the vulnerabilities are patched in versions 7.9.1-102 and 8.0.0-404, Cisco said in a separate advisory. Users of 7.2 and prior, 7.7 and 7.8 branches are advised to upgrade to version 7.9.1-102 or later of the software. The 8.1 versions are not affected.

 

Releases 7.1 and prior, 7.5 and 7.7 of the Cisco Web Security Appliance software are vulnerable to two authenticated command injection vulnerabilities and one management GUI denial-of-service vulnerability. Some of the vulnerabilities are the same as those affecting the Cisco Email Security Appliance software.

 

The software releases that include fixes for all three Cisco Email Security Appliance vulnerabilities are 7.5.1-201 and 7.7.0-602. Users of the 7.1 and prior versions are advised to upgrade to 7.5.1-201 or later.

 

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Bugs & Fixes: Users report Internet loss with new MacBook Airs

Apple’s latest updates to its MacBook Air laptops have been getting rave reviews for their incredible battery life: the 13-inch model clocks more than 12 hours on a single charge. Unfortunately, these new Airs have also been getting some unwanted attention for a potential Internet connection failure. In particular, numerous users report that their Internet connection drops out within minutes of them getting online. A bit surprisingly, this occurs even though the computer’s Wi-Fi connection still shows a normal strong signal.

 

I first became aware of this matter via a Gizmodo article that provocatively asked: “Is Your New MacBook Air’s Wi-Fi Crappy?” The article claims that “a couple of thousand disenfranchised Apple customers seem to have descended on the Apple Support Forums.” Given that there were less than 150 posts in the cited Support Communities thread, Gizmodo’s claim of “a couple of thousand” complaints seems to be a significant exaggeration. Still, as there are likely many affected users who have not posted their dismay online, the claim is probably true in the larger sense.

 

Although the new models support 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the problem happens primarily, if not entirely, with older connection technologies. More precisely, the dropped connections appear to occur most often with third-party routers as opposed to Apple AirPort routers, especially routers that are too old to have even 802.11n support. This means that if you take your Air to a Genius Bar at an Apple Store, the Air will likely work fine (as many people have confirmed). This, in turn, means that the Genius will most likely conclude that the problem is in software rather than with the Air’s hardware. However, in my view, a hardware cause remains a possibility; it may be one that only gets triggered when connected to certain types of routers.

 

At this early juncture, there is still no consensus solution. Some users found that switching channels on their router eliminated the drops. Others claimed that deleting one or more files in the SystemConfiguration folder (as described in a 2012 OS X Daily article) solved the problem. Others found that the symptom went away after a complete reinstall of OS X.

 

As is too often the case, for each of these solutions, other users failed to get the reported success. On the other hand, numerous owners of the latest MacBook Airs have never had this symptom at all.

 

My guess is that an Apple-supplied software or firmware update will be required to ultimately resolve the matter. In the meantime, if you’re planning on buying one of these new machines, be sure to test its Internet connectivity right away—so that you have the option to return the machine if it turns out you are a victim of this bug and cannot get any solution to work.