Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 4: Pass on a couple of patches

  Posted on July 10, 2011 at 06:57 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’m moving to MS-DEFCON 4. If you’re willing to trudge through the details, you should apply most outstanding Microsoft patches. If you don’t want the headache, you can safely pass on the June Black Tuesday patches – for now.

  Susan Bradley has an excellent roundup of the problems with the .NET patches in her Windows Secrets article. There are two .NET patches in this group, MS11-039 and MS11-044. They’ve spawned an evil mess of KB articles and, unfortunately, you have to wade through the KB numbers to get the right patches. These are the ones to avoid:

  XP: KB 2478656, KB 2478658, KB 2478663, KB 2518864, KB 2530095, and KB 2518870;

  Vista: KB 2478657, KB 2478659, and KB 2478663, KB 2518863, KB 2518865, and KB 2518870;

  Win7: KB 2478662, KB 2478663, KB 2518867, KB 2518870, and KB 2518869

  Like I said, it’s a mess. If you don’t want to fool around with individual patches, I say avoid the current round altogether: pick them up next month.

  At this point, I would also avoid Office 2010 Service Pack 1. There’s no benefit in it, if you’ve kept up on patching Office 2010.

  The other Microsoft patches look like they’re good to go.

  By all means, make sure you download and run the Malicious Software Removal program, and apply Microsoft Security Essentials updates.

  We’re at MS-DEFCON 4: There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented here. Check this site to see if you’re affected and if things look OK, go ahead and patch.There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented here. Check this site to see if you’re affected and if things look OK, go ahead and patch.

  Windows Patches/Security June 2011 Black Tuesday, NET

• MS11-050 being exploited – don’t use Internet Explorer!

  Posted on June 18, 2011 at 06:52 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Gregg Keizer at Computerworld reports that Symantec has seen targeted attacks in the wild that go after the hole just plugged this week by Microsoft’s MS11-050 security bulletin.

  The hole affects IE 6, 7 and 8 – which is significant because IE 8 is widely thought to be relatively impervious to exploits. (I said “relatively”, yes?)

  Anyway, you have four choices: Install IE 9 (which I’ve been recommending for months now); install MS11-050 [typo fixed – sorry – WL], which is another monster Internet Explorer patch; disable JavaScript; or use any browser other than IE (which I’ve been recommending for many years, eh?).

  Windows Patches/Security Internet Explorer, June 2011 Black Tuesday, use-after-free

• MS-DEFCON 2: Make sure automatic updates is turned off

  Posted on June 15, 2011 at 00:25 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  It’s that time again. Black Tuesday is here, and we’re about to be bombarded with a ton of patches.

  Of course, you’re all patched up, and you’ve turned off Windows Automatic Update, right?

  I’m moving us up to MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

  Windows Patches/Security June 2011 Black Tuesday