Brief Hands-On Report--Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station (802.11n) Firmware 7.3.1 Update

Apple released a firmware update for Time Capsule and it's 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations. The firmware update 7.3.1 is available via AirPort Utility 5.3.1 or as a stand-alone updater from this Apple Web page. According to Apple,

This update includes general fixes and compatibility updates

While not reported by Apple in the update, it does include a security fix. Here are the details:

AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n--CVE-2008-1012--An input validation issue exists in the AirPort Extreme Base Station's handling of AFP requests, which may cause file sharing to become unresponsive. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of AFP requests. This issue does not affect Time Capsule or AirPort Express. The fix for this issue is available in the following separate updates:

- - AirPort Extreme with 802.11n (Fast Ethernet) 7.3.1
- - AirPort Extreme with 802.11n (Gigabit Ethernet) 7.3.1

Credit to Alex deVries for reporting this issue.

I downloaded the update via AirPort Utility 5.3.1 and updated an original (Fast Ethernet) AirPort Extreme "n" Base Station and a 500GB Time Capsule without a problem. My MacBook Air and 24" white iMac Core 2 Duo can still access both Base Stations and obtain internet services flawlessly. [Bill Fox]