Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 3: Time to get patched AND apply a manual fix

  Posted on October 2, 2013 at 10:25 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’ll be covering Susan Bradley’s detailed discussion of KB 2859537 tomorrow, after Windows Secrets Newsletter hits, but the bottom line is that MS appears to have nailed the problems with August’s last bad patch.

  The comical September bad patches – twelve pulled and re-issued patches – all seem to be working OK.

  But there’s a more important reason why I’m suggesting you install all of the outstanding Microsoft patches now. As of just a few hours ago, Lucian Constantin at PC World reported that a working exploit for an Internet Explorer vulnerability just showed up on Metasploit. Chances are very good that you’re going to see that exploit used shortly.

  Here’s what’s weird about that IE vulnerability: Microsoft hasn’t released an Automatic Update for it yet, but it does have a Fixit available that you can apply, manually, to shore up your system.

  I know that most of you don’t use IE, but this one’s bad enough (and now widespread enough) that it would be prudent to get your system patched. I haven’t heard of any problems with the Fixit, but that doesn’t necessarily imply a clean bill of health, eh?

  So I’m recommending that you not only apply all outstanding Microsoft patches, I’m also recommending that you run over to the Fixit site and apply that fix manually.

  I’m moving us to MS-DEFCON 3: Patch reliability is unclear, but widespread attacks make patching prudent. Go ahead and patch, but watch out for potential problems — and strongly recommending that you also go to the Fixit site and get that patch applied.

  Windows Patches/Security Fixit, September 2013 Black Tuesday

• Microsoft botches six more patches – KB 2817630, KB 2810009, KB 2760411, KB 2760588, and KB 2760583

  Posted on September 11, 2013 at 19:24 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  They all came out in the Black Tuesday tumble, although one of them isn’t a security patch.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch

  Windows Patches/Security KB 2760411, KB 2760583, KB 2760588, KB 2810009, KB 2817630, September 2013 Black Tuesday