Microsoft Patches Affect Multiple Systems

OK, where’s Waldo takes on a different spin. The patches are out and admins and vuln researchers alike are burning through the coffees and red Bulls. I found that the pre release announcement for Patch Tuesday seemed a touch vague. Now we know why.

From Network World:

“Admins will have a difficult time finding which patches are needed for which machines to get 100% coverage,” says Eric Schultze, CTO of Shavlik Technologies. “It creates a challenge for them.”
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The breadth of MS08-052 made it the worst of the four bulletins Microsoft released on its monthly Patch Tuesday because it touches so many pieces of software and because it attacks deep within Windows.

“Fifty-two addresses five vulnerabilities and affects the core operating system,” says Amol Sarwate, manager of the vulnerabilities research lab at Qualys. “It affects .bmp, .wmf, and .gif [image] file formats, and an attacker could either send such files as e-mail attachments or have a victim view a malicious Web page.”

I am counting my lucky stars that I don’t have to administer any Windows systems. Good luck to those of you who do.

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