Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 4: Microsoft begins a strong push for 24H2

  Posted on January 28, 2025 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.04.1 • 2025-01-28

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Last week, Microsoft announced that Windows 11 24H2 is now “broadly available.”

  This notice was contained in the Microsoft Learn post Windows 11, version 24H2 known issues and notifications.

  Except for my continuing recommendation not to install 24H2, I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4. There are some problems, but they are manageable. Go ahead and patch.

  Microsoft’s language in the Learn post was more direct than usual and included Windows 10 in the mix.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (22.04.1, 2025-01-28).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Fortinet, KB5049235, KB5049981, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Networking, Patch Lady Posts, SQL Server, SQL Server 2019, Windows 10 22H2, Windows 11, Windows 11 24H2

• MS-DEFCON 4: Consumers get a break

  Posted on June 25, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.26.1 • 2024-06-25

  

  By Susan Bradley

  We’re halfway through the patching year!

  It’s time to install the June updates, which is why I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4. I’m not seeing any widespread issues or major impacts. Most side effects seem to be with Win11 Insider versions and 24H2.

  It appears that new technology allowing you to sync your phone with your computer is causing a bit of a CPU hit in the 24H2 release. Microsoft is trying to fix this issue before it gets released to the rest of us. That’s good news.

  In the very good news category is the delay in releasing Microsoft Recall, the much-hyped “reminder” software. The company pulled back at the last minute, due to concerns from security researchers and businesses.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.26.1, 2024-06-25).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Active Directory, Alerts, bug bounty, CVE-2023-38606, CVE-2024-30078, KB5039211, KB5039212, KB5039217, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Process Monitor, Recall, SQL Server, Sysmon

• MS-DEFCON 4: A “sort of” quiet February

  Posted on February 27, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.09.1 • 2024-02-27

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The February updates have generally been well behaved, with one major exception: gamers.

  Otherwise, things have been mostly quiet. That’s why I feel comfortable lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4. Patches are unlikely to cause most users any problems.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.09.1, 2024-02-27).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON .NET patches, Alerts, ConnectWise, Exchange Server, KB5034441, KB5034763, KB5034765, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Patch Lady Posts, ScreenConnect, SQL Server, WinRE

• Microsoft kills off Internet Explorer — mostly

  Posted on February 20, 2023 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.08 • 2023-02-20

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Not feeling the love from Microsoft this month?

  That might be because the company is saying goodbye to its aged Internet Explorer Web browser (IE), albeit only on certain platforms.

  For Windows 10, the death of IE is not part of this month’s Windows update but rather part of the update to the Edge browser. That update would have been in the background, silent, and you may not have noticed it. Even if you did, you probably didn’t pay much attention. Unless, of course, you had moved from IE to Edge a while back. For you, the update re-migrated your favorites and bookmarks, making a duplicate list.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.08.0, 2023-02-20).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Patch Watch .NET patches, Edge, Internet Explorer, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, SQL Server, Web Browsers

• Patch Lady – SQL patching in August

  Posted on August 15, 2018 at 15:00 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  For the folks with SQL server and in particular SQL 2014:  I’ve seen this come up a bit in forums and other venues:

  https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2018-8273

  In that post it implies that other versions of SQL besides 2016 and 2017 are vulnerable.

  The way I read it and understand the situation it’s only SQL 2016 and 2017 that are vulnerable.  If you have SQL 2014 SP2 which is supported until 2024 and still in mainstream support – it’s not vulnerable.

  Just because newer stuff is newer doesn’t mean older stuff is vulnerable too.

  “The following software versions or editions are affected. Versions or editions that are not listed are either past their support life cycle or are not affected.”

  Note If your SQL Server version number is not represented in the table below, your SQL Server version is no longer supported. Please upgrade to the latest Service Pack or SQL Server product in order to apply this and future security updates.

  That second statement is totally not true.  SQL 2014 sp2 is very much supported.

  In fact as you can see from the link below it’s supported until 2024 for security updates (Extended support is the final date of support for security patches)

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search?alpha=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%202014%20Service%20Pack%202

  And definitely mainstream until 2019 (which means it not only gets security updates but general fixes as well.

  Apologies to the MSRC folks but I rate this on the Pinocchio scale for this portal entry as Not Transparent enough and thusly confusing.

  

  Windows Patches/Security Patch Lady Posts, SQL Server

• NET Security/Quality rollups KB 3210137, 3210138 pulled over conflict with SQL Server, Veritas backup

  Posted on December 21, 2016 at 07:17 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The 3rd Tuesday “preview” rollout isn’t working the way it’s supposed to.

  UPDATE: Following up on comments posted on the patchmanagement.org mailing list, it looks like the KBs installed through WSUS are KB 3205403 and 3205404, and both of those are still available in the Update Catalog.

  There’s also a note that the patch for .NET 4.5.2 (the only version affected by this problem) would be mighty hard to extricate from the rollups, because they deal with many versions of .NET.

  I’m pulling the article on InfoWorld, will fix it and re-release in the morning.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 3210137, KB 3210138, SQL Server, Veritas

• Hotmail #FAIL

  Posted on January 5, 2011 at 23:24 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft lays an egg in the cloud.

  Infoworld Tech Watch.

  Microsoft News Hotmail, SQL Server