QuickBooks 2006 nightmares continue: security flaw discovered, patched

Intuit recently alerted users of the QuickBooks accounting application to a vulnerability in the software's product upgrade mechanism, and urged customers not to use QuickBooks Pro 2006 for Mac at Internet hotspots (like Starbucks). The company subsequently issued a patch that obviates the vulnerability by disabling the upgrade mechanism altogether.

A statement to customers reads:

"If you have not installed the R5 patch for QuickBooks 2006 for Mac by Wednesday evening, the patch will be downloaded to your computer starting Thursday, January 3rd. Once the patch is downloaded, you will need to install it to make the patch effective. If you have manually disabled the upgrade mechanism already, we strongly urge you to apply the patch since a refresh of your preferences will recreate the issue. Installing the patch will permanently disable the upgrade mechanism so that the issue won't occur again."

The company also offers the following instructions for applying the patch:

1. "Quit QuickBooks if it is running.
2. Download the patch for QuickBooks Pro 2006 for Mac from the following URL, or, for QuickBooks New User Edition 2006 for Mac.
3. Once the .dmg file has been downloaded to your hard drive, desktop or downloads folder, a window will open showing a QuickBooks icon.
4. Drag the QuickBooks 2006 icon to your computer's Application folder.
5. Close this window. QuickBooks 2006 for Mac R5 is now located in the Applications folder on your hard drive. You may launch the program from there.
6. That's it! Be sure to replace any aliases or Dock icons for QuickBooks with a new icon for the R5 release."

In mid-December, 2007, Intuit enacted a serious blunder that caused users who applied a recent QuickBooks 2006/2007 update to lose personal data (all contents of the Desktop). The company subsequently offered afflicted users a copy of Data Rescue II from Prosoft Engineering, which retails at $99.00, via reimbursement.

Previous coverage:

• Intuit offers free data recovery software to QuickBooks users who lost data
• QuickBooks update deletes your data, Intuit offers "waiting list" for fix

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