PCs – PossibleThreat Articles

Take your time, get it right for March Patch Tuesday

March 17, 2020 0 Comments Microsoft Office, PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Greg Lambert| Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2020 11:41:00 -0700

This is a big update to the Windows platform for the Microsoft March Patch Tuesday release cycle. Consisting of 115 patches, mostly to the Windows desktop, with almost all of the critical issues relating to browser-based scripting engine memory issues, this will be a difficult set of updates to release and manage.

The testing profile for the Windows desktop platform is very large, with a lower than usual exploitability/risk rating. For this month, we do not have any reports of publicly exploited or disclosed vulnerabilities (zero-days), so my recommendation is to take your time, test the changes to each platform, create a staged rollout plan and wait for future (potentially) imminent changes from Microsoft.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Microsoft Patch Alert: February 2020 patches bring fire and ice but seem to have settled – finally.

February 26, 2020 0 Comments Microsoft, Microsoft Office, PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2020 09:44:00 -0800

The real stinker this month, KB 4524244, rolled out the automatic update chute for four full days until Microsoft yanked it – leaving a trail of wounded PCs, primarily HP machines, in its wake. The other big-time bug in this month’s patches, a race condition in the KB 4532693 Win10 version 1903 and 1909 cumulative update installer, hasn’t been officially acknowledged by Microsoft outside of a blog post. But at least it’s well known and understood.

Folks running SQL Server and Exchange Server networks need to get patched right away.

Win10 UEFI update KB 4524244 blockages

Patch Tuesday brought KB 4524244 for Windows 10 owners, a bizarre single-purpose patch apparently directed at one specific UEFI bootloader. I talked about it last week.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Microsoft springs last-minute demand on buyers of Windows 7 after-expiration support

February 15, 2020 0 Comments PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2020 05:35:00 -0800

Microsoft this week threw a wrench into the workings of its long-touted Windows 7 post-retirement support, telling IT administrators that there was a brand new prerequisite that must be installed before they can download the patches they’d already paid for.

The last-minute requirement was titled “Extended Security Updates Licensing Preparation Package” and identified as KB4538483 in Microsoft’s numerical format.

The licensing prep package can be downloaded manually from the Microsoft Update Catalog. It should also appear in WSUS (Windows Server Update Services), the patch management platform used by many commercial customers. It will not, however, be automatically delivered through the Windows Update service, which some very small businesses rely on to provide them necessary patches.

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ComputerWorld Independent

A large – but manageable – February Patch Tuesday brings critical browser updates

February 13, 2020 0 Comments PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Greg Lambert| Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2020 03:00:00 -0800

With 99 reported vulnerabilities and patches to both Microsoft browsers, Office and Windows, this month’s Patch Tuesday update is not as large an administrative burden as you might initially think. We’ve rated the browser updates as a “Patch Now” update due to issues with the Chakra engine, but both Office and Windows can be scheduled according to a regular patch cadence. Unfortunately, we have another Adobe Flash update to deploy, but no critical development updates for February.

You can find more information in our helpful infographic here.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Patch Tuesday: 99 holes, 'exploited' IE fix, Win7 mayhem and UEFI ghost

February 12, 2020 0 Comments PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2020 09:40:00 -0800

What a month it’s been – and the Patch Tuesday patches have only been out for 24 hours. There are many February patching foibles to report.

Every version of Windows 10, stretching back to the beginning of time (except for the long-neglected version 1511) got patches this month.

Welcome to the new, improved, paid-for Win7 patches

There was no free Windows 7 update this month, even though Microsoft released a Monthly Rollup Preview in January. Anyone concerned about the well-documented “Stretch” black wallpaper bug caused by last month’s Win7 Monthly Rollup apparently can pound sand – or manually download and install the fix. Your choice.

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ComputerWorld Independent

The perils of shouting 'fire' in a crowd of PC patchers

January 30, 2020 0 Comments Microsoft, PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2020 10:14:00 -0800

Time and again we see the same drama play out. Microsoft releases a security patch and scary warnings appear from every corner. When your local news broadcast tells you that you better patch Windows right now…, more temperate advice should prevail.

A little over two weeks ago, on Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released a patch for a security hole known as CVE-2020-0601 – the Crypt32.dll vulnerability also called ChainOfFools or CurveBall.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Microsoft Patch Alert: January 2020 patches look relatively benign

January 23, 2020 0 Comments Microsoft, Microsoft Office, PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2020 07:17:00 -0800

The big patching problems this month fell at the feet of admins who had to deal with an unholy mess of pressing exposures: Fixing the holes in Microsoft’s RD Gateway (CVE-2020-0610; see Susan Bradley’s Patch Watch, paywalled); dealing with Server 2008 R2 systems that booted to Recovery mode after installing the January patches; scrambling to pick up after breaches in Citrix networking products; or the 334 Oracle security patches. They all took a toll.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Microsoft to Windows 7: Beat it, you bum

January 14, 2020 0 Comments Microsoft, PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 12:36:00 -0800

Microsoft today figuratively told Window 7 – which ended support with a final security update – not to let the door hit it on the way out.

“Ten-year-old tech just can’t keep up,” Jared Spataro, an executive on the Microsoft 365 team, wrote in a post to a company blog. “As we end support for Windows 7, I encourage you to transition to these newer options right away.”

Not surprisingly, Spataro named those newer options as Windows 10 to replace Windows 7, and Office 365 to fill in for the retiring-in-October Office 2010. Combined, they make up the bulk of Microsoft 365, the business subscription plan Microsoft wants all customers to adopt.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Seven high points of Windows 7

January 14, 2020 0 Comments Microsoft, PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 04:16:00 -0800

Today Microsoft issues its final free security update for Windows 7, putting an end to that operating system’s decade.

To remember that service – a retirement party but without the cloyingly-sweet cake and cheap gold watch – Computerworld selected seven highlights of Windows 7. While the seven do not pretend to trace Windows 7’s history, they illustrate the influence and impact of the OS.

Here’s to Windows 7. Raise a glass, for cryin’ out loud.

It salvaged Microsoft’s reputation after the Vista debacle

The numbers say it all.

Windows Vista, the 2006 replacement for Windows XP, topped out at 20% of all Windows versions in October 2009. Even though the OS it followed was long in the tooth – XP was nearly twice the age of a typical version when it was supplanted – Vista struggled to put a dent in its forerunner’s share.

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ComputerWorld Independent

FAQ: Last-minute answers about Windows 7's post-retirement patches

January 7, 2020 0 Comments IDG Insider, Microsoft, PCs, Security, Windows

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2020 04:53:00 -0800

A week from now, Microsoft will serve customers with the last for-free Windows 7 security update, in effect retiring the 2009 operating system.

However, hundreds of millions of personal computers will still power up thanks to Windows 7 on Jan. 14, and for an indeterminate timespan after that date. Windows 7 may be retiring, but it’s not disappearing.

Microsoft admitted as much more than a year ago when it announced Extended Security Updates (ESU), a program for commercial customers who needed more time to ditch Windows 7. ESU would provide patches for some security vulnerabilities for as long as three years. For a fee.

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(Insider Story)

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