After years of being mocked by the online security community for being too slow to respond faster to software vulnerabilities, Apple finally fixed a longstanding flaw in the Java code that has been hanging around since Adam took his first bite of an Apple.

The flaw could allow a Java applet to execute malicious code on affected Macs, potentially leading to information theft or a compromised system. In May, Intego warned Mac users to disable Java in their Web browsers until Apple got around to fixing the Java vulnerability.

In a patch summary Apple states, "Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X v10.5." It mentions nothing about the fact that it will turn over control of your expensive mac to a hacker.

Apple has been aware of this vulnerability for at least five months, since it was made public, but has neglected to issue a security update to protect against this issue," Intego said in a security advisor complained last month.

Apple users tend to believe a mantra which says that only Windows users get viruses. They also discount any Malware which infects Macs as an example of anything threatening for their computer.