Safari matches rivals with sandboxed Flash for better security

On OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple's browser now puts limits what Adobe Systems' Flash Player can do, making it harder for malware authors to run rampant on people's Macs.

Catching Safari up to Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, Adobe Systems has put its Flash Player plug-in into a sandbox for better security protection on Apple's browser, too.

'With this week's release of Safari in OS X Mavericks, Flash Player will now be protected by an OS X App Sandbox,' Adobe platform security strategist Peleus Uhley said Wednesday in a blog post.

Sandboxing restricts the privileges that software gets, for example prohibiting it from writing to a storage device or tampering with data in memory held by another program. Such limits make it harder for malware authors to extend an attack from the browser to a position of more power.

'Safari users on OS X Mavericks can view Flash Player content while benefiting from these added security protections,' Uhley said. 'We'd like to thank the Apple security team for working with us to deliver this solution.'