Microsoft delivering a dozen patches

[OhioChick]

Microsoft on Tuesday plans to deliver 12 fixes – its largest patch rollout in a year – to address a number of vulnerabilities impacting its operating systems and related software.

Redmond is slated to release seven bulletins affecting “critical” vulnerabilities and five fixes to remedy bugs labeled “important.”

One of the “critical” patches will plug a severe but previously unknown vulnerability in Internet Explorer

“It affects every version of IE and every operating system,” Jason Miller, manager of the data and information team at Shavlik Technologies, provider of patch management software, said. “There could be exploits in the wild.”

The patch release also appears to include a fix for a zero-day Excel hole, disclosed Jan. 15, Miller told SCMagazineUS.com today. Microsoft had warned Windows and Mac users that cyberattackers are remotely exploiting the flaw in targeted attacks.

But there is no way to be sure the fix is coming because the advance notification bulletin only states the affected software, not the particular flaw being addressed.

Meanwhile, the “important” patches will address a number of server-side issues, including bugs in the Active Directory on Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Internet Information Services on Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

Vista, Microsoft's newest operating system version, is listed as vulnerable in five of the 12 bulletins.

Mark Shavlik, founder and chief executive officer of Shavlik Technologies, told SCMagazineUS.com today that Tuesday will provide the climax to a busy patching period. Just this week, administrators were forced to grapple with updates to Adobe Reader, Apple QuickTime, Sun Java and Skype.

“It's a busy two-week run,” Shavlik said. “It had been a little quiet with the holiday.”

Tuesday's round of fixes from Microsoft will match last February's delivery of 12 patches, which remains the highest number released since the summer of 2006. Last August included nine bulletins.


http://www.scmagazineus.com/Microsoft-delivering-a-dozen-patches/article/105103/

[bemildred]

1. F**k Micro$oft, and their dog, and the horse they rode in on.

Micro$oft is the single biggest obstacle to progress in the realm of software and operating systems. There are much better operating systems than Windoze out there, but they get no money for development and applications because there are not huge profits to be had in that way. So instead we get this patch patch patch approach, which wastes vast quantities of user time and energy and money.

[madrchsod]

2. as soon as i get off du

i`m going to move everything over from microshit to ubuntu. cool program that puts ubuntu into a file on my computer. i can use linux based system and everyone else can stay with ms.

[papau]

4. install wine so you can run Vista/XP programs in Ubuntu

[mth44sc]

3. why on earth do we continue

to put up with this crap?

[Lennon]

5. Only 12 fixes for Windows

I have downloaded and Installed far more fixes for my Linux system this past month, and Apple just released a update that has over 130 fixes.


List of Mac OS X 10.5.2 Fixes Expands to Over 130
http://www.powerpage.org/2008/02/list_of_mac_os_x_1052_fixes_expands_to_over_130.html

[DCKit]

6. As far as I know, Linux programs aren't "patched", they're replaced.

I don't know how Apple does it, but Linux replaces faulty programs with re-written, stable, tested versions instead of piling patch upon patch upon patch. Somehow that just seems better to me.

[Lennon]

7. I never used the term "patched"

In my post, Linux updates are "fixes"

The updates are usually for security fixes, and to fix other apps on the system.

[DCKit]

8. Did my post sound bitchy? If so I'm sorry.

I was stating what I thought and am open to discussion, education and positive criticism. I know next to nothing about Linux (except I've got it working) and haven't used a Mac in over ten years.

The point I was attempting to make is that MS programs are built and installed with dirty code and that more code is piled on top of already bad, bloated code to keep it running satisfactorily. I was also wondering if Apple followed the same example or used the Linux model.