Patch Delivery Snafu Snares No-Patch December

A Web Exclusive from WinInfo
Paul Thurrott
WinInfo
InstantDoc #41143
WinInfo

   The mysterious delivery of a critical security patch this week, the same week in which Microsoft announced it wouldn't deliver any critical-security-patch bundles, had the company scrambling yesterday to find out what happened: A glitch in the company's Windows Update patch-delivery mechanism was responsible for the delivery of the erroneous patch, which fixes a problem with the Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions, a software add-on for Microsoft's Web server software. The company issued a Microsoft Knowledge Base article describing the patch more than a month ago, although it didn't publish the patch to Windows XP users until this week. Microsoft says it should have published the patch and Knowledge Base article simultaneously and for all affected systems.
   The FrontPage Server Extensions fix is critical only for XP and Windows 2000 systems that have Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 2003 installed, and Microsoft apparently distributed the patch to Win2K users on November 11. The patch is rated "moderate" for most XP systems (i.e., XP systems without FrontPage Server Extensions installed, which is most of them).
   In related news, a new Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0 vulnerability that researchers recently discovered could potentially put users' data at risk. According to a security bulletin released earlier this week by the Danish security company Secunia, this newly discovered IE 6.0 vulnerability could let intruders spoof Web sites by loading a different page when users enter a genuine URL in IE's address bar. If the vulnerability is compromised correctly, attackers could emulate an e-commerce site such as Amazon.com or eBay and cause users to inadvertently enter sensitive information. Microsoft says it's "aggressively investigating the public reports" about this vulnerability and, if warranted, might issue a patch outside of its regular monthly patch packages. The next set of patch packages is due in the second week of January.

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50 billion in the bank. Keep reminding yourself of that...50 FREAKIN' BILLION in the bank, and they can't even figure out how to deliver a critical security patch.

And now, boys and girls, just in time for the holiday shopping season: compromised security on e-commerce sites! Whopeeee!

Someone please explain to me why anyone continues to use this company's products. Seriously.

Wendy Rebecca December 11, 2003

Paul

Perhaps you should read the security bulletin before posting a garbled account of what happened yesterday. Briefly, an error in Windows Update caused it to offer a November patch to XP users who, in fact, did not need it. There was no new patch, and XP users without FPSE installed are at no risk, not moderate risk. It would have been easy to check the facts. As for the IE rumor, it has been circulating for weeks. Bottom line: just another minor IE bug, if that.

Larry December 11, 2003

The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing....

And to think, people still actively seek to install this OS, all from a so-called "trusted computing" company.... oh dear....

kingm@excite.com December 11, 2003

microsoft's plan to only issue updates once a month so that net admins wouldn't be so swamped is complete, total, utter BS. i'm sure the change was motivated purely by a money-making scheme...as most things are.

adam_c December 11, 2003

Strange problem, but it hasn't affected me. I think the monthly update system is great. At least I can plan for a schedule time for updating systems. There are also conference calls to explain the issues. The old weekly updates were a headache.

J McNamera December 12, 2003

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