Risk for MAC Archives

Apple announced on Thursday that it will recall some inch MacBook Pro laptops because they have batteries that may "overheat and pose a fire safety risk."

The affected laptops are an older design, without the Touch Bar keyboard, and were sold between September and February The specific model affected is listed as "MacBook Pro (Retina, inch, Mid )" in system settings.

Apple said that the recall does not affect any other Mac laptops. To check if your device is affected, Apple published a website where you can input your computer's serial number. Apple will replace the battery free of charge, according to its announcement.

"Customer safety is always Apple's top priority, and we have voluntarily decided to replace affected batteries, free of charge," Apple said on its website.

The affected laptops are a previous-generation design, and are not the same models as the current MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. Those computers have a "butterfly" keyboard which has been criticized by Apple users for being unreliable, and those computers are currently covered by an Apple service program that replaces the keyboard for free if it starts malfunctioning.

Battery issues are not uncommon in consumer electronics. The most famous example of a recall associated with overheating batteries was Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, which caught fire because of issues with its batteries.

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"The vast majority of OS X users are not at risk," Apple spokesman Bill Evans said late Thursday evening.

"Shellshock" is a vulnerability in Bash, a piece of software packaged with Mac OS X, which is based on the Unix operating system. The bug does not appear to affect Apple's iOS, which is used on the iPhone and iPad, or machines running Microsoft Corp's Windows software.

Security experts disclosed the "Shellshock" vulnerability in Bash on Wednesday, saying that it could enable attackers to gain remote control of vulnerable systems.

Apple ships its computers so they are "safe by default," Evans said, which means that they are not vulnerable to remote attacks unless users configure them for "advanced" Unix services.

"We are working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced UNIX users," he said.

The computer industry is rushing to determine which systems can be remotely compromised by hackers, but there are currently no estimates on the number of vulnerable systems.