Newsletter Archives

• February — Same number of patches, fewer bugs

  Posted on February 17, 2025 at 02:43 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  This month we have a more “normal” patch release of 57 vulnerabilities.

  Although that’s a “woo-hoo” for the security researchers, you and I will still see the same old security updates being offered. That is, we will see a Windows security update.

  What also hasn’t changed is my stance toward Windows 11 24H2. If you buy a computer with it, stay there. If you are already on it and see no issues, stay there. But if you haven’t yet installed the 24H2 feature release on your existing Windows 11 23H2 machine, I still recommend holding back, especially for businesses. For consumers, the risk is less — as long as you are not a gamer.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.07.0, 2025-02-17).

  Patch Watch Apple updates, CVE-2025-21194, CVE-2025-21376, CVE-2025-21387, CVE-2025-21391, CVE-2025-24200, KB890830, Netlogon, Newsletters, Outlook (new), Patch Lady Posts, System Guard, Windows 11 24H2

• MS-DEFCON 2: Batten down the hatches for August

  Posted on August 3, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.31.1 • 2023-08-03

  

  By Susan Bradley

  I’ve been tracking some side effects that Microsoft has yet to acknowledge.

  With Patch Tuesday just around the corner, it’s a good idea to put your favorite deferral solution in place. Some issues I’ve been following for several months are finally fixed in the August security updates, but we’re learning about this only through hints in preview releases.

  Set your phasers on stun: I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (20.31.1, 2023-08-03).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Browser Scams, CVE-2023-20593, CVE-2023-32019, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 2, Netlogon, Windows 11, Windows 11 22H2

• MS-DEFCON 4: Installing just the updates

  Posted on June 27, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.26.1 • 2023-06-27

  

  By Susan Bradley

  If you recall, earlier this month Microsoft released an update that needed some additional steps — manually adding registry keys — to fully protect your machine.

  My position on this matter has been that I did not recommend taking the additional steps unless you knew that you or your firm was specifically being targeted. Microsoft’s notes indicated that it would be releasing a future update that would not require manual intervention — and that if you did not install it, you might experience side effects.

  Microsoft did not provide any hints about which side effects. Helpful, don’t you think?

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (20.26.1, 2023-06-27).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Kerberos, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Netlogon, VPNs