June MS security fixes
p2p news / p2pnet: There were 16 million instances of malicious software on 5.7 million unique Windows-based computers in the past 15 months, says Microsoft in a promo puff piece for the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) and Windows Defender.
Now, in their latest fix-the-holes release, the largest this year, Bill and the Boyz say one of the gaps is already being actively used by malicious hackers. And some of them are critical, although exactly how many of them received that tag depends on what you’re reading.
The BBC says, “Nine of the updates apply to the Windows operating system and one is deemed critical.”
The Washington Post says, “Today’s patch bundle is the largest yet for 2006, and includes a huge patch rollup that mends at least eight different flaws – four of them critical – in nearly all versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser.”
PC Magazine says, “In all, the software maker issued patches for eight critical flaws, three important problems and one moderate glitch.”
Reuters says, “Six of the critical flaws related to Windows and two affected Office. Microsoft also issued another two security warnings it rated at its second-highest level of ‘important’ for Windows, as well as one it gave a severity rating of ‘moderate’.”
“At the same time as information about the update was being released, Microsoft mentioned that it will not be able to patch Windows 98 and ME against a loophole discovered in April 2006,” says the BBC.
“Fixing this bug in the ageing software would require a major re-write of the Windows Explorer program used in these old copies of the operating system. Microsoft is not prepared to undertake this work, given that all support for Windows 98 and ME ends on 11 July 2006.”
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UPDATE @ 7:46 AM Pacific
The June security update has something for nearly everyone in several for different flavors of Windows and IE, and others for Word (MS06-027), PowerPoint (MS06-028), and Media Player 10 (MS06-024), says F-Secure, going on:
“The patch for Word fixes an issue that was blogged about in May. The PowerPoint includes versions for Windows and Mac – though the vulnerability is not likely to exploit either OS. Additional analysis is available here.
“Edited to add: Here’s some more information on the patches available and what they fix. Several of them have exploits. Update your systems soon.”
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June 14th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Is it safe to assume that most of the problems can be solved by not using Internet Explorer and maybe dumping Outlook and friends as well?
So the real “fix” is Firefox and Agent? And it works on 98 as well?
June 14th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
And that about sums it up =)