Fix 21 Microsoft Vulnerabilities

Here are some of the latest 8 Patches available for download by Microsoft to fix whooping 21 vulnerabilities. These updates are available through Windows Update and Automatic Updates.

Here is a list of and some what details on the individual security advisories from Microsoft:

• MS09-009: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Cause Remote Code Execution (Critical)—This advisory describes 2 vulnerabilities. at least one of which was reported recently with a zero-day attack. Both are rated critical only for Office 2000 but technically affect all versions of Office through 2007. Buffer overflows in the parsing of the old Office Excel format could lead to remote code execution. Using MOICE, the Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment, prevents the attack.
• MS09-010: Vulnerabilities in WordPad and Office Text Converters Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Critical)—Bugs in the text converters in various versions of Office, Wordpad and Windows could lead to remote code execution in the context of the logged-in user. The vulnerability is only rated critical for Office 2000; Office 2000 through 2003 are affected as are Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003.
• MS09-011: Vulnerability in Microsoft DirectShow Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Critical)—The DirectShow component in DirectX 8.1 and 9.0 in Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003 is vulnerable to a critical remote code execution attack in MJPEG decompression. A malicious MJPEG file could take control of the system.
• MS09-012: Vulnerabilities in Windows Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (Important)—Elevation of privilege could be caused by 4 different vulnerabilities affecting every version of Windows. An unprivileged user could use one of these attacks to perform privileged operations, including installing malicious software.
• MS09-013: Vulnerabilities in Windows HTTP Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Critical)—All Windows versions are affected by one critical vulnerability in HTTP services and 2 less-severe ones. A malicious web server could use this vulnerability to take control of the system, But web access through Internet Explorer is not affected by this vulnerability because it does not use the vulnerable Windows HTTP Services. 3rd-party products and some Windows services that use it may be vulnerable. For instance, the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) service uses it. The other 2 vulnerabilities could allow for spoofing and credential replay attacks in some cases.
• MS09-014: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (Critical)—6 vulnerabilities, three of which are rated critical for Internet Explorer versions 5, 6 and 7 on all supported client versions of Windows, are patched in this update. Internet Explorer 8 is not affected. One of the bugs is the old “carpet bombing” bug, originally reported only on Apple’s Safari.
• MS09-015: Blended Threat Vulnerability in SearchPath Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (Moderate)—All versions of Windows except Windows 2000 are vulnerable to the remote possibility of a privilege elevation error. This one is worth patching, but not worth worrying about.
• MS09-016: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft ISA Server and Forefront Threat Management Gateway (Medium Business Edition) Could Cause Denial of Service (Important)—Certain Microsoft gateway security products are vulnerable to a denial of service attack and to spoofing or information disclosure through a script injection bug.

May 5: Windows 7 RC1

What is that special about May 5 that is what you might have thought about when you hit the title, but really guys there is something special about May 5 2009.

Microsoft is ready with its Release Candidate 1 for Windows 7 and as a news leak from the Redmonds Diary it is going to be released on May 5.

The Microsoft Windows 7 enthusiasts , will be pleased to hear that the software giant Redmond is going to Release Candidate 1 (RC1) edition soon. Starting May 5, Microsoft will provide Windows 7 RC1 through TechNet.com and MSDN.com.

Release Candidate ?

A Release Candidate is a final somewhat a final touch between a beta and the final release of an operating system. Similar to a TV pilot, beta releases are closely monitored and tested by the manufacturer (Microsoft) as it is runs on downloaders’ computers. According to Microsoft’s own site, “[Windows 7 will] gather and send information to Microsoft engineers to help them check the fixes and changes made based on testing of Windows 7 Beta.”

If you’re not comfortable with having Microsoft tuned in at all times, you might want to wait for the final release, either later this year or early 2010

Why Windows 7 might eat up XP

Microsoft for some time has wanted to kill off XP — and when Windows 7 hits, the company will finally be able to do it. Here’s why Windows 7 will let Microsoft tow the cap.First off, it’s no hush-hush that Vista hasn’t been embraced by enterprises, many of whom have treated it like the outbreak. That’s unlikely to be the case with Windows 7. One reason: Vista wouldn’t run properly on a fair amount of PCs in enterprises when it was initially launched because the hardware wasn’t high-powered as much as necessary.

Today that’s no longer the case. Enterprises have gone through at least one round of hardware refresh since the Vista launch, and so now virtually of their PCs will run Windows 7.

The same thing holds for printers and other peripherals. One of Vista’s biggest problems was that too many peripherals wouldn’t run with it.

Again, though, that’s no longer true. Enterprises have newer peripherals now than they had years ago. Newer peripherals will work with Windows 7, because it was designed to work with Vista-compatible hardware.

In addition, the Windows 7 beta has been quite solid and stable — so much so that Gartner has been telling businesses that they don’t need to hold off until Windows 7 SP1 to plan for deployment — they can start planning at launch.

Given all that, Microsoft will be able to move enterprises towards Windows 7 and away from XP, ultimately allowing the company to kill XP.

Windows 7 will run on netbooks, which Vista can’t do. Because Vista can’t power notebooks, Microsoft has had to keep XP alive for the large and growing netbook market. But when Windows 7 ships, Microsoft will have Windows 7 installed on netbooks, not XP. That also will let it kill XP more quickly.

The upshot? Windows 7 will do something that Vista couldn’t — kill XP.