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Businesses Urged To Use Unofficial Windows Patch

Posted by Zonk on from the quick-quick dept.

frankie writes "ZDNet is reporting on the latest dire pronouncements about the WMF vulnerability. The problem is so serious that security experts are urging IT firms to use the unofficial patch. Microsoft's current goal is to release the update on Tuesday." From the ZDNet article: "This is a very unusual situation -- we've never done this before. We trust Ilfak, and we know his patch works. We've confirmed the binary does what the source code said it does. We've installed the patch on 500 F-Secure computers, and have recommended all of our customers do the same. The businesses who have installed the patch have said it's highly successful" It's big enough that even mainstream media is covering the flaw.

2 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. MS has to test very extensively by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you're curious as to what all they do, you can take a look here. A sample quote from the article:

    In some cases, particularly when the Internet Explorer browser is involved, the testing process "becomes a significant undertaking," Toulouse said. "It's not easy to test an IE update. There are six or seven supported versions and then we're dealing with all the different languages. Our commitment is to protect all customers in all languages on all supported products at the same time, so it becomes a huge undertaking."

  2. Whoa, that's really bizarre by frankie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This article isn't anything like the one that I submitted.

    • 2006-01-03 17:15:05 No Microsoft WMF update until next week (Index,Windows) (accepted)

    Mine looked more like this (body content from memory):

    " The usual suspects are reporting Microsoft's latest announcement about the WMF vulnerability (link to previous /. article). To quote (link to MS technet article): "Microsoft's goal is to release the update on Tuesday, January 10, 2006, as part of its monthly release of security bulletins." So do you install the unofficial patch (link to previous /. article), or cross your fingers for a week?"