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Weekly Microsoft Critical Security Issue
An anonymous reader sent in linkage to a zd story discussing the latest Windows Security Patches including an especially nice hole letting Java apps gain total control of your machine and assist you in reclaiming disk space by, say, reformating your drive.
... that my Java skills can be used for evil, rather than good. ;-)
which virtual machine is it that caused this? The one before or after Microsoft added their own extensions? (which caused the whole MS-Sun lawsuit)
Suicide Booth: You are now dead! Thank you for using Stop and Drop, America's favorite since 2008.
OK, so I hate MS for building unsafe software. But this time, I have to give them credit. I woke up this morning to my computer telling me that there was a critial update waiting to be installed, and it was this one. I read about the vulnerability on the web *after* installing the patch, so I am kinda glad that MS shoves updates down my throat.
That'll work out great. I just downloaded the RH9 ISOs.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Couple of remote roots in Samba, a local ptrace in the kernel and a few OpenSSL probs to get you on the system initially.
Get your own free personal location tracker
Doesn't it seem just a little strange that the Java VM, which MS removed from XP until it was forced to reinclude it by court order (still under appeal, I believe), has a critical security hole found?
The timing seems a little too good to be true...
Good thing Microsoft JRE is so broken, that all exploits ended up not working!
Write once, debug everwhere.
In the second paragraph:
The three warnings, all issued on Wednesday, involve the Microsoft Virtual Machine for running Java applets on Windows
So it's Microsoft's VM implementation...
I don't agree with the intention of the message. While it is true that this bug allows the execution of commands, it does this only with the rights of the owner of the user account. In Unixian, this is not a remote root exploit.
Nevertheless, my last sentence becomes quite irrelevant, as Windows user tend to work as $root.
Actually the court order is to put Sun's version of the JVM into Windows - exactly to fix this type of stupid problem.
Just curious. I mean, if the intent is to inform.
Geez guys, why can't you go a day without publishing anti-MS crap! Don't you think that if this were really a problem that people'd be aff.... K(R*AB(*D [NO CARRIER]
So I now have two options.
* Let baddies in at their will.
* Run Windows Update, expose my machine to Msoft, sign away my soul through the patch EULA.
Help!
From the office of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (aka Baghdad Bob):
"Lies all Lies! The infidel Linux computers are not secure. The coilation will fall in the wake of the mighty secure Microsoft operating system!"
More at 11.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
As the main post points out this is pretty much a weekly news release from Microsoft. It's interesting because in some ways I get suprised by the severity of the bugs such as allowing a huge hole in the Java VM, that would allow someone to format your hard drive or a bug in Proxy Server that would allow a single mal-formed packed to max the CPU at 100%. On the other hand I'm suprised Microsoft doesn't have more of these bugs.
I think this is where the philosophical differences of Open Source Software really make a big difference. Even though OSS still has bugs, the live testing cycle is un-paralleled. However I think the biggest difference boils down to this: there is no one saying we have to have this product out the door by XX date. Rather it becomes stable when it's ready, but you can use the development version if you need or want.
As the lines of code in software grows and the complexity increases, I think we will see a greater number of more sever bugs in closed source systems. Ultimately I believe this will be one of the critical factors leading to OSS's long term success.
Doug Tolton
"The destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't." -John Galt
Big difference. Apps have total control by default, while applets are supposed to be harmless.
I can honestly say that it baffles me as to why Microsoft continues to hold such a huge stake in most of the computing world. I don't understand why people continue to digest what is carelessly tossed out of Redmond, WA.
I can understand the need for an array of software unavailable on any other platform (though, what percentage of that software is actually GOOD software?), and the platform standardization issues, maybe even "ease" of use, but honestly, the security and ridiculousness of the MS platform, ideology, and disregard of standards make me sick.
What is the continuing allure? Do you really not mind running machines that are completely insecure? And how can they not fix their own NT 4.0 code? That's absurd. They pitch this solution for years, and bail when the cost to fix their crap gets too high.
I'm not trolling, I'm baffled. Someone tell me why this continues?
It's only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything...
Let me save many of us some time:
"Well here we go again. A gaping security hole in Microsoft [ Operating System ]. This never would have happened if Bill Gates weren't just trying to make more money so he could buy more [ plural noun ] to fill up his mansion in [ place ]
This is just one more reason why [ circuit court ] should [ verb ] that [ expletive ] company once and for all.
[ Unix-based operating system ] only had this problem [ number ] in it's entire history, and there was a patch posted in under [ number ] minutes!
[ Text-based word processor ] rulez! Micr- [ Insulting variation on 'soft' ] is the [ Traditional evil diety ]!"
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Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.
see, this is why i print out all of the data on my hard drives in binary every weekend.
track7.org has all kinds of interesting stuff!
Well, it is now officially Thursday. Aa I've said before, I think there should be an
Official
So
Happy
It's
Thursday for announcing MS holes.
www.eFax.com are spammers
You're right... Last year Readhat issued nearly twice as many security bulletins as Microsoft.
I'm sure the above is a troll, but I'll answer anyways. When you install windows, you get, well, windows. And internet explorer, and freecell. That's about it.
When you install linux from RedHat (or Mandrake or...) you get the OS, severl browsers and mail clients, 2+ office suites, 4+ text editors, java, perl, c, python, 25+ games, 3+ window manages, etc (not that you have to install all that - but they're available in the install).
I'd say Redhat is doing great to only have 2x the security bulletins as microsoft considering they supply 4x or 5x the software on their cd's.
Plus, it's been documented many times before that bugfixes are available much quicker in the OS world than the MS world.
I'm increasingly convinced that Linux is dying off. The lies and distortions we are seeing on slashbot have become more and more desperate over the past two years.
Name one "lie" regarding linux that you've seen on slashdot that's demonstratable not true (articles only, not posts). Remember, nobody is going to agree with all the opinions expressed on this site.
Personally its not God I dislike, its his fan club I cant stand (bash.org)
Microsoft intentionally extended the core API by introducing additional instructions to access the underlying Win32 operating system. Had they done this by providing a separate API, there would not have been any problems.
Unfortunately, Microsoft chose to take a different approach and introduced new operators into the core byte-code interpreted by the Virtual Machine. As these additional instructions were only valid within Microsoft's version, users were effectively left with no choice but to use the exact VM for which the code was compiled. This decision by Microsoft to modify the base instruction set of the Java language made it impossible to port code from one platform to another, thereby ensuring that users would have to remain on the Windows platform. In fact, Java programs compiled for MS's VM would not even work on the same OS if another vendor's VM was used to run it. This is why some applets wouldn't work with the JVM shipped with Netscape (which was Sun's JVM).
The instruction set supported by a Java VM is determined and maintained by Sun. In order to implement your own VM, you must agree to a license with Sun stating that you will not modify the core instruction set. In adding direct support for OS access (such as formatting a hard drive), Microsoft violated this license agreement. Microsoft also added their own keywords to the core language (delegate and multicast) which further ensured incompatibility.
The Java byte code is a single byte in size and, as a result, the Java VM spec supports up to 256 op codes. Not all of them are used, however. Out of those potential 256 opcodes, only 200 valid operators are specified. Opcode 186 is not used, opcode 201 is used for debugging, and codes 254 and 255 are used for trapping and tracing. The remaining opcodes are reserved for future use. Clearly, if a compiler introduces new opcodes, the other compilers won't know about them and won't be able to run programs built with those opcodes. This is in direct violation of the VM specification and is exactly what Microsoft did. This was the basis for the Sun v. Microsoft lawsuit, for which Microsoft was found in willful violation.
So, it would seem as if Microsoft did intentionally break their own version of Java.
If you still do not understand how Microsoft did this on purpose, I suggest that you take a look at the Java Virtual Machine Specification, as well as a nice book on general compiler theory.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".