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Microsoft: Patches, Patches Everywhere!
Ridgelift writes "Even though Microsoft's recently announce they would not be issuing any new patches for the month of December, the boys at Redmond were scrambling today to figure out why some systems are being patched. The reason? They haven't got a clue."
...and of course you read the announcement about this, didn't you? And as such you know that they will still release zero-hour patches for vulnerabilities which are actively being exploited in the wild and/or are to the top left of the threat matrix (remote/system level explots).
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
the boys at Redmond were scrambling today to figure out why some systems are being patched. The reason? They haven't got a clue.
The do have a clue. Read the article. It's because a November patch for frontpage wasn't applied to some machines.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
if you read the WHOLE article you find this:
The same patch was sent out again via the Windows update service on Tuesday night. The company is still investigating why and how the patch was reissued.
So, they have a reason for it to be released, but they don't actually know why or how it got released... so... maybe 'they haven't got a clue' is a bit of overstatement, but they certainly don't have the whole clue.
ìì!
It's no skin off your nose, but you're not the admin for 1500 machines.
The admins of large scale deployments have asked Microsoft to make patches more predictable so they can do planning for patch deployment. Microsoft complied.
As others have stated, when a known vulnerability exists, or when sample code is publicly available, Microsoft will release the patch as soon as it's written.
It's WAY WAY more complicated than that. Have you even worked at a big company? Like, say, a company with 60,000+ employees, all on disparate systems across many regions of the world? We've got branch offices that still run Windows 95, and it's not even our fault! We only recently acquired them!
To top it off, we have frequent problems where patches and security policy updates BREAK our programs. We can't just push it out to every client. We have to be ABSOLUTELY certain that we don't interrupt our employees ability to work. We are a Bank afterall, people DO NOT like it when their Bank can't give them their money.
You can't just gloss over this problem, it's an INCREDIBLY difficult problem. The only real solution is for MS (not just MS though, everybody) to stop releasing crappy software in the first place. Until that happens we're going to continue to be screwed no matter what we do.
Automatic updates are really convenient for home users, but there is no easy way to stay one release behind. Some patches are standalone, others are bundled. Some cannot be uninstalled. Some require the presence of previous patches. It has become such a burden to stay current that it is not surprising that even people who should know better don't bother.