Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 4 – Make sure January updates are installed

  Posted on January 31st, 2021 at 10:15 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  It’s time to make sure January updates are installed. More details are in the AskWoody Plus newsletter out  tonight/tomorrow (sign up for it here).

  I’m recommending that Win10 Home and Pro users move to version 2004 (or 20H2) if you haven’t already done so.  Remember you can set the Targetreleaseversion setting and make sure you only get to the version you want.

  I also have advice and information about the supposed NTFS “bug” upcoming Computerworld.  Stay tuned!

  Windows Patches/Security January 2021 Black Tuesday, MS-DEFCON 4

• Zero day Windows 10 bug

  Posted on January 16th, 2021 at 18:48 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Topic: A Zero-day Windows 10 bug corrupts your hard drive on seeing this file’s icon @ AskWoody

  This is one of those … okay let’s be careful out there…. bugs.

  Alex points to a Windows 10 bug that is triggered by merely extract the zip file or look at a folder that contains the malicious shortcut.

  Remember whenever you get something via email that you didn’t expect, don’t open it.  If you are really curious, check out the file or link on www.virustotal.com or www.reverse.it

  Security researcher Jonas L first warned about the bug earlier this week, describing it as a “nasty vulnerability.” Attackers can hide a specially crafted line inside a ZIP file, folder, or even a simple Windows shortcut. All a Windows 10 user needs to do is extract the ZIP file or simply look at a folder that contains a malicious shortcut and it will automatically trigger hard drive corruption.

   

  Edit:  I spotted on Windows 10 NTFS $i30 File Corruption | AttackerKB

  Attackers can remotely exploit this vulnerability to make Windows think a drive is corrupted even though it is not. Successfully resolving this issue will require users to reboot Windows and run a disk check on the corrupted drive, after which Windows will be convinced that the drive is no longer corrupted.

  It’s not really corrupted after all.

  Windows 10, Windows Patches/Security Patch Lady Posts

• Security update for Secure Boot DBX can be skipped (KB4535680)

  Posted on January 16th, 2021 at 11:32 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Security update for Secure Boot DBX can be skipped (KB4535680)

  Just a heads up – this  will be in the Plus newsletter later on this weekend but due to the severe impact it had on my Saturday morning for one of my HyperV servers I’m going to post it here as an advanced heads up:  the KB4535680 causes a “double reboot” on machines and for those folks that manage HyperV servers this has a VERY nasty side effect:

  It puts your HyperV machines in “saved” state.  In order to recover I had to reboot the host an additional time – even had to hard reboot it as it was stuck on shutting down the HyperV management services.  Once it rebooted it let me restart the virtual machines but then I had to reboot the VMs to get them back behaving.

  “If you have Windows Defender Credential Guard (Virtual Secure Mode) enabled, your device will restart two times.”

  

  I don’t have that enabled.  I DO have HyperV.  I’m also recommending that you skip it on consumer machines as well.  If you are in charge of nuclear weopons or state secrets, then maybe install it.  For us mere mortals. it’s a skip.  If you ended up installing it anyway and had no issues, don’t remove the update.  But for us that patch HyperV (servers that host other servers) this one is VERY disruptive.  BornCity has a write up on it as well.

   

   

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4535680, Patch Lady Posts

• Windows 7 ESU year two oddities

  Posted on January 15th, 2021 at 21:45 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  According to the thread in the Microsoft Tech Community:

  Year two: Extended Security Updates for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 – Microsoft Tech Community

  Here are some interesting things about the Year 2 ESU license.

  Oddity number 1:  While you can’t buy year 2 of the ESU without having an existing (or new) order for year 1 on your account, you can install the year 2 ESU without and having the year 1 ESU installed.  I guess you’d have this situation if you were reinstalling/rebuilding a Windows 7 machine.

  Oddity number 2:  We don’t think there is a “test” update like last year.

  Overall, I have less clients this year asking for these ESUs as they’ve replaced many of their machines with Windows 10 in the past year.

  Windows 7, Windows Patches/Security Patch Lady Posts, Win7 ESU

• January 2021 updates are here

  Posted on January 12th, 2021 at 13:07 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  So this is the time of the Patch Tuesday that I call “Reading time”.  I start reading all the security blogs about patching and start seeing if there are side effects.

  Ghacks is here.

  ZDnet is here

  Zeroday is here

  I don’t see an official listing for Office patches at this time, I’ll post that when I see it.

  So far the items of interest are Defender having a bug that was probably already fixed on your machine.

  The .NET patches that really only include optional updates and not NEW security updates which means they may be offered up to you but you don’t have to install them (making them somewhat confusing).

  Of more concern to me is once again we have to dig into the details… as Dustin Childs said… ” Again, without executive summaries, we can only speculate the true severity of these bypasses.”

  Edit:  I STILL see Office 2010 updates out today.

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493186/security-update-for-excel-2010-january-12-2021

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493143/security-update-for-office-2010-january-12-2021

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493142/security-update-for-office-2010-january-12-2021

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493181/security-update-for-office-2010-january-12-2021

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493145/security-update-for-word-2010-january-12-2021

  Edit: Updates are now also available for Office 2013 and Office 2016.

   

  Windows Patches/Security January 2021 Black Tuesday, Patch Lady Posts

• MS-DEFCON 2 – Get ready for January updates

  Posted on January 11th, 2021 at 10:33 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Remember it’s time to prepare for January updates by delaying /or pausing updates.  Also I’m ready to give the all clear to 2004 if you want to do it before tomorrow’s patch Tuesday (or later on in the month).

  More in Computerworld.

  Windows Patches/Security January 2021 Black Tuesday, MS-DEFCON 2

• Win7 ESU License purchasing now open

  Posted on January 4th, 2021 at 13:49 Amy Babinchak Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  For the second year Harbor Computer Services has agreed to make the Win7 ESU licenses available for small quantity purchasers. What do you know? Microsoft and the distributors both got their act together this year and opened up Windows 7 – Year 2 Extended Servicing Updates license for sale on time. That means it’s available now! The cost of year two licensing is $142.

  To prepare for your license purchase you will need:

  • Your tenant information from last year. Find that email from Ted. It’s in there and you were instructed to keep it in a safe place.
  • Credit card
  • Number of licenses needed
  • email address

  If you have any Windows 7 computers that do not have year 1 applied, then you will also need to purchase year 1 for that computer. There’s a note section to let Ted know that you need one of those too. After you submit the form, Ted will process the information, make the purchase and the send you an email response with the license and instructions for installation. Just like last year. Please be a bit patient as we get ramped up to process these.

  Here ‘s the link to the form

  Small Business Computing, Windows 7, Windows Patches/Security Win7, Win7 ESU

• MS-DEFCON 4 – all clear to install updates

  Posted on December 28th, 2020 at 08:16 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Well it’s time to close the year and the month on patching.  If you haven’t already done so, install them now and get ready to say goodbye to Adobe Flash.

  More on Computerworld.

  Windows Patches/Security December 2020 Black Tuesday, MS-DEFCON 4, Patch Lady Posts

• When should you patch?

  Posted on December 23rd, 2020 at 10:52 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  https://www.computerworld.com/article/3601989/the-patching-conundrum-when-is-good-enough-good-enough.html

  Heard about the BSOD triggered by CHKDSK on 2004/20H2?  So did Microsoft and they fixed it.  But it once again points out that if you want patches immediately you need to ensure you have backups and understand that you may not be getting “perfect” patches.

   

  Windows 10, Windows Patches/Security Patch Lady Posts

• Windows 7 ESU for 2021

  Posted on December 23rd, 2020 at 10:07 Amy Babinchak Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  UPDATE: Purchasing is now open. https://www.askwoody.com/2020/windows-7-esu-for-2021/

  About 3,000 of you purchased the Windows 7 ESU from Harbor Computer Services last year. We offered to make this available to Woody readers after so many IT firms recklessly said that they wouldn’t. My feeling is that while I’d prefer that no one was running Windows 7 anymore, for those that are they need access to updates to retain some degree of security on those systems. We aren’t here to judge. My firm is also an advocate for healthy IT communities and so we agreed to sell the ESU license to all comers even though there’s no money in it for us to speak of. In our regular business, selling stuff is not our thing. We’re a services business.

  We’ve been getting a lot of email recently asking about the year two ESU license and we’ve been letting everyone know that we didn’t have any information yet from Microsoft or distribution. But just yesterday, we got word from our distributor that the license should be ready for purchase beginning on January 5th 2021. Keep that should in mind because this date is dependent on Microsoft hitting thier deadlines. It appears that the price will be $142 all in. This is less than the predicted $150-$200 so that’s some good news.  Keep in mind that last year Microsoft changed the pricing during the first month creating some chaos, so we’re braced for a sudden price change and will keep you posted.

  The process for making this purchase will be the same as last year. We’ll open a form on which you’ll provide all of the information needed for the purchase to take place. Then you’ll get an email from Ted@harborcomputerservices.net with your ESU license code and instructions for installing it.

  To prepare for your license purchase you will need:

  • Your tenant information from last year. Find that email from Ted. It’s in there and you were instructed to keep it in a safe place.
  • Credit card
  • Number of licenses needed
  • email address

  Keep an eye on this space in January for the URL to the purchase form.

  If you’d like to know more about the behind-the-scenes process. Please see this article from last year. How we automated the Win7 ESU-purchase process @ AskWoody

  – Amy Babinchak, president Harbor Computer Services, Third Tier and Woody contributor

   

  Security, Windows 7, Windows Patches/Security Win7 ESU

• MS-Defcon 2 – Here comes December

  Posted on December 8th, 2020 at 12:28 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Microsoft is out with their December releases.  The blog post today focuses on something that a LOT of us complained about last month:  The lack of information that was lost in the new format.  We’ll have to see if they provide ENOUGH info this month.

  Remember the Server only fixes Kerberos that were in those out of band Catalog update only patches are included in the December releases.

  My biggest surprise?

  WHY are we still getting Office 2010 updates when it is officially out of support as of October 2020?

  More in ComputerWorld.   Full patch lists coming this weekend in the newsletter.  In the meantime what are your experiences?  Stay tuned.

   

  Windows Patches/Security December 2020 Black Tuesday, MS-DEFCON 2, Patch Lady Posts

• MS-Defcon 2 – Get ready to pause for Dec

  Posted on December 1st, 2020 at 12:20 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  It’s time to put the pause (or defer) for your updates.  It’s the first Tuesday of the month and non security Office updates are out – PK has them listed here.

  More in Computerworld!

  Windows Patches/Security December 2020 Black Tuesday, MS-DEFCON 2, Patch Lady Posts
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