Patch Thursday?
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Blog, Windows, Security, Microsoft on
We all know that Microsoft issues security updates and fixes on the second Tuesday of the month. That is why it is called Patch Tuesday. So why the heck is Microsoft issuing a security patch today, a Thursday, in-between Patch Tuesday runs?
The twee answer is ‘who cares’ as long as Microsoft is fixing a hole? The slightly longer and serious answer is that we simply do not know. All we do know is that it is that rarest of beasts for a company that has built a reputation for taking a slowly, slowly, catchee monkey approach to bug fixing and security hole filling: the emergency security patch.
Indeed, this will be the first time since April 2007 that Microsoft has made such a move. Back then it was to cover the corporate arse as a well known vulnerability with .ani files was being exploited in the wild and getting a huge amount of publicity.
But this time it is different, this time there is no great media outcry and no great insider whispering campaign either. Which all points to a serious vulnerability that has not yet been made public, which does not mean that the bad guys are unaware of it of course. The very fact that an emergency patch is being rushed out suggests that there is either a real and imminent danger of it being exploited, that it is already being exploited or that if it were exploited it would have wide-ranging and harmful implications for Windows users.
All we know, all the IT security grapevine knows, is that the update will be rated as critical for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 and is scheduled to appear at 5pm this afternoon.
Rated: 60% (4 votes)
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