Apple issues Mac OS X security update

Apple has delivered its first Mac OS X security update of the year to close 12 vulnerabilities.

The Flash Player plug-in is getting the most work, as it suffers from seven known flaws, according to an advisory released Tuesday. The most serious of the bugs could result in malicious code execution if a user is tricked into viewing a specially crafted website.

In addition, the update corrects vulnerabilities in CoreAudio, CUPS, ImageIO, Image RAW and Open SSL. The latter suffers from a man-in-the-middle flaw that can enable an attacker to "capture data or change the operations performed in sessions protected by SSL."

The update can be installed through the operating system's Software Update preferences, described here, or from Apple Downloads.

Apple last delivered an OS security update in November to fill more than 50 holes.