Newsletter Archives

• Ten bulletins, 31 patches, a million potential problems

  Posted on June 10, 2009 at 07:06 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  There’s a huge crop of patches waiting for you, covering 31 separate vulnerabilities, and I dunno-how-many different downloads.

  As usual, the best overview is at the SANS Internet Storm Center.

  Bottom line (tell me if you’ve heard this one before): don’t use Internet Explorer. Apparently none of the bad problems (except the ones in IE) have exploits that you need to worry about. Don’t apply any patches until the screams have subsided.

  We remain at MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

  Oh. Don’t forget to patch Acrobat Reader, if you have it. Adobe just fixed 13 security holes in Reader. You could take advantage of the unease you’re feeling right now and install Foxit reader, which works just fine most of the time and has a significantly better track record for fixing security holes.

  An interesting note: several of you have asked how Microsoft and industry pundits count the number of bugs: Gregg Keizer at ComputerWorld reports, for example, that this monster set of patches fixes 31 security holes – a record, by his estimation. Brian Krebs at the Washington Post echoes the statement. Brian credits Symantec.

  All of these people are counting the number of CVEs that Microsoft claims to fix in the security bulletins. CVEs are “Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures” listed and maintained by the MITRE organization, which is an independent non-profit originally associated with MIT. Each CVE number corresponds to one or more identified security holes. While the CVE count is a better indicator of how many holes have been patched than the number of security bulletins, it frequently doesn’t differentiate between different versions of programs, and other subtleties.

  Windows Patches/Security Adobe Acrobat Reader, CVE, Foxit, June 2009 Black Tuesday, MITRE

• MS-DEFCON 2: Lock your machines down

  Posted on June 9, 2009 at 22:02 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  With June’s Black Tuesday crop of patches imminent, now’s the time to make sure all of your computers are set to “Notify but don’t download” updates. Instructions are in any of my books, or click Start | Control Panel | Security Center and take it from there.

  There’s  a big crop of patches coming. I suggest you sit back and let the pioneers get the arrows in their backs.

  We’re at MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

  Windows Patches/Security June 2009 Black Tuesday