Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 4: Get patched now

  Posted on November 6, 2009 at 04:10 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  True to form, October’s Black Tuesday patches had one major stinker: the Internet Explorer update MS09-054 was so bad that Microsoft had to release a patch to the patch. Matter of fact, they rolled two patches to the patch into one patched patch.

  Got that?

  Knowledge Base article 976749 describes the carnage. If you’ve already applied MS09-054/KB  974455 (but you haven’t, right?), then you need to apply KB 976749. But if you mistakenly apply the patch to the patch (KB 974455) before you apply the patch itself (MS09-054/KB 976749), you break Internet Explorer.

  Fun ‘n games. There have also been major changes to MS09-050 (which was changed just yesterday), MS09-056 (the associated KB article is up to version 7.1), and MS09-062.

  Anyway, the bottom line is that it now appears safe to apply all the outstanding Windows and Office patches. That includes those of you running Windows 7.

  Get your machines brought up to speed because there’s six more Security Bulletins coming next Tuesday.

  I’m moving us down to 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.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 976749, MS09-050, MS09-054, MS09-056, MS09-062, October 2009 Black Tuesday

• MS-DEFCON 2: A record number of MS patches

  Posted on October 14, 2009 at 14:45 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Black Tuesday has come and gone, and Microsoft unleashed 34 – count em – 34 separately identified security patches, contained in 13 security bulletins numbered MS09-050 to MS09-062.

  The SANS Internet Storm Center List covers the highlights. The really disconcerting one is the first one – MS09-050 fixes a hole in Vista and Server 2008 that can be exploited remotely.

  I haven’t heard of anybody getting infected yet, but as soon as this baby has hit the big time, I’ll yell real loud and tell you to patch it.

  In the interim, hang in there, turn off Automatic Updates, and let’s see what crashes.

  I’m moving us to MS-DEFCON 2, Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it, with the caveat that Vista users need to keep an eagle eye on this page.

  Windows Patches/Security MS09-050, October 2009 Black Tuesday, SMBv2