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Microsoft to Issue Emergency Patch For File-Sharing Hole
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft said late Wednesday that it plans to release a critical security update today to plug a security hole present in all supported versions of Windows. The company hasn't released any details about the patch yet, which is expected to be pushed out at 1 p.m. PT. Normally, Redmond issues security updates on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of each month. The Washington Post's Security Fix blog notes that each of the three times in the past that Microsoft has departed from its patch cycle, it was to fix some really nasty vulnerability that criminals already were exploiting to break into Windows PCs."
Reader filenavigator points out an article which describes the hole as an SMB vulnerability, and says it "allows anyone to access a Windows machine remotely without any user name or password. Any machine that exposes Windows file sharing is vulnerable." Update: 10/23 17:42 GMT by T : Reader AngryDad adds a link to Microsoft's more detailed memo.
Gonna try this one out on the College Network right now. Shouldn't be using Windows if they don't want all their files deleted now should they?
As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.
Now in Debian, no. People using that are automatically more knowledgeable and know the potential risks. Plus OSS has it's house in far more order than Microsoft ever will.
And your friends without a clue, did they turn to you for assistance? Because if so, that sort of proves my point. It's not so much this stuff being turned on by default, as in people not knowing about it or how to use it.
Having all this stuff turned on out of the box is like having all your doors open. There's no guarantee anything bad will happen, but it will certainly increase the chances.
If anyone (who isn't the original poster as an AC) can confirm they know people "without a clue" who use Windows file sharing, please enlighten me, as I have never known ANYBODY who has used it outside of a corporate environment.
But even if people do, it's irrelevant really, as the MAJORITY of users are just one computer sitting on an internet connection, and no amount of random "parents and friends without a clue" blithering is going to change that.
No patch for Windows 98SE?
Yeah, I saw that. My karma can take a beating so I don't care, but it irks me that there are so many MSCEs with such low self esteem that they would mod any comment unfavorable to Microsoft, no matter how valid, reasoned, concise, and polite, as "flamebait" and "troll".
I guess Bill Gates (as quoted by uncyclopedia in the "slashdot country" entry) was wrong when he said "Netcraft confirms it - Slashdot *is* filled with Linux fanboys." because every time I say something positive about Linux, or have the slightest criticism of Microsoft or any of its products, the hordes of astroturfers decend.
I'd say it's full of MSCEs with low self esteem. Poor kids.
Free Martian Whores!
Mods, if you can read English, I'd like to bring your attention to a very useful tool: Sarcasm.
The parent post is an example of this wonderful linguistic device. Study, learn and master it.
And stop downmodding perfectly valid comments just because your lives are too dull and closeted to grasp the double-edged humor that is sarcasm. Sometimes the only way to properly express a problem is to turn it inside out like this.
-Billco, Fnarg.com