“Microsoft Corp. today released four new security bulletins detailing patches for several critical vulnerabilities, including one that fixes 14 separate flaws, in a wide range of Windows software. The patches are part of the company’s monthly rollout of security fixes and address a total of 20 flaws. The products affected by the flaws include Windows NT Workstation and Server, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003,” Jaikumar Vijayan reports for ComputerWorld.
“The patch detailed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011 is one of the biggest software updates the company has released in terms of the number of flaws it addresses,” Vijayan reports. “A total of 14 vulnerabilities are addressed in the update, some of which are critical, said Stephen Toulouse, security program manager for Microsoft’s Security Response Center. In some cases, the patch addresses holes that are critical in some products but aren’t as serious in others, Toulouse said.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews article:
OSNews: ‘Windows has become a liability; users owe it to themselves to try Mac OS X’ – April 12, 2004
Will the madness ever cease? What about those Windows users on dial-up? Are they supposed to just leave their computers on for weeks at a time downloading these things? Just crazy.
I tried updating my Windows XP here at work. After about 10 attempts, each time with a diffierent “error”, I finally managed to get the update to start. Funny how the page says “Total 6 = 7.5 MB, < 1 minute”, yet it’s been going on close to half an hour now (and the install progress bar hasn’t even moved yet…the first download is barely halfway). I took a screen shot of one of the errors that I think tells it all. In the background is IE with the list of security patches, and in the foreground, a generic dialog that says “HTTP Error: Server too busy.” Too funny! 😀
20 at one time, that’s got to be a record. Even by Microsoft’s standards.
Check it out here
It’s the Stockholm Syndrome, people form a emotional bond to those who are inflicting hardship on them. People think if that they would just stick with it, like a crummy job, that one day everything will be alright and they can take a two week vacation in Florida when they retire.
But what they don’t realize is all the years they spend suffering it molds their personality into meanness and when they do finally get a two week holiday in a sunny Florida location, they realize they just blew their life away suffering for nothing. They are too old and too worn out to enjoy anything.
The better choice is to dump what is making one suffer and embrace a computing platform that makes you happy. This way you have had a happy fun life, instead of being controlled by suffering.
And to my loyal fans, I give you the iTunes DRM crack, you drag your iTunes DRMed ACC files to the window, click and out pops duplicates without the DRM. Complete with tags and artwork.
You want the latest Playfair cocoa GUI for PCC. And it works good. Simple GUI, requires a key from iTunes or a iPod which it gets on its own. So the music has to be decoded first on a persons who owned it. I believe.
Don’t steal music or give it away! Artist have to eat too.
Playfair crack
Congratulations Microsoft, with the 20 vulnerabilities fixed today, there are now only 17,248,469 remaining…
Really Bill, you are exaggerating by at least 1 order of magnitude.
All kidding aside, the update patched fine on my XP machine and I seem to recall having to patch my Mac last week.
Tommy Boy keep on trolling.
A rare occasional Mac security update to correct a potential flaw is nothing compared to a almost daily rollout of various patches, virus definitions and other hacks thats Microsofts has become famous for. Check the first link above, you will notice just about every piece of software ever written by M$ has something wrong with, even ActiveX, even IE on Mac’s!
On Mac’s one can count on two hands the security updates and viruses over the 20 year lifespan of the company.
On PC’s one will need a entire library to catalog the 81,000+ viruses and 10,000’s of security patches in the same 20 year period.
There’s only one thing Windows PC’s are good for
Click here for the answer
So Windows trolls can kiss my #$%&%, your computer sucks and your OS sucks. Because you all just plain suck.
I hope you never get to use a Mac, I don’t want you stupid hairballs messing with a perfect machine.
And why, oh why, won’t this little tidbit of news be found on the front page of every newspaper and website like the one – ONE! POTENTIAL and likely never exploited to any degree, EVER – trojan horse “vulnerability” that a slap-happy, overly ambitious, paranoid-mongering security company forced Apple to deal with a few days ago that can’t even affect a Mac unless the user physically enters the keystrokes to actually allow such a vulnerability to have any effect?
And, furthermore, how can this even remotely compare to the woes and gnashing of teeth that M$ users must regularly face on a weekly, daily or hourly, basis, as evidenced by what we just read above? Every time I read one of these stories, I’m only more glad I own a Mac.
I’m sure that if and when macs ever approach the popularity of windows machines, they’ll have their fair share of security exploits as well.
I should rephrase that to “popularity and widespread use of windows machines”
Bora,
Mac will never have as many security exploits as Windows. If you bothered to read up on OS X you will know that it’s built upon UNIX which is inherantly more secure than Windows. One of the most important aspects of OS X is it’s permissions. Try trashing anything inside your System folder. It’ll either tell you outright you can’t or require you to type your password.
Now try doing the same on a Windows box… oops! Where has my OS gone?
That’s the difference. Macs are more secure through good software design.
Oh yeh, one more thing Bora. There are 10 million users of OS X. That’s quite a lot of people, admittedl not as many as Windows, but Macs last longer than PC’s so I reckon there are millions of OS 9 users still out there. The company I used to work for had over 600 OS 9 machines, and they’re all still running without a hitch.
Nahh Bora, more attempts for sure but not the same share of security exploits. You see, it is not *visibility* that allows the virus, it is crappy OS code. Now, OS X is based on BSDUnix which has stellar record concerning security.
Just ask a knowledgeable friend on Unix and let him/her give you some insight.
Visibility is the crappy PR twist of MS to justify their load of viruses (over 80,000) now. You may download a virus-kit for Windows off the net and a 12 year old to launch a virus for Windows, you need a guru expert on Unix (and OS X) but by the time they have reached that expertise they are involved into Open Source efforts and work actually to make the system more secure.
Noticed hom Apple security updates are not Apple per se? They are all security updates on tools common to all Unix platforms.
Windows updates? They all fix holes it Microsoft code, sometimes as old as W95 code still on XP. Which, in itself, explains why usually a virus for Windows is able to infect all versions: because they share for the most same old ’70 crappy code. So much so for *evolution*.
MS is just recanning old broth, add sugar, and sell as a new product. Amazing how people do not see that.
And the same will happen with Longhorn: they cut so many features now to meet the 2006 deadline that it is going to be nothing more that XP Reloaded with some more eyecandy. How sad.
(or maybe great: by then people will hopefully realize how much more advanced OS X 10.5 or 10.6 is)
Seahawk,
Well said! Windows is the colourful clown suit for DOS. Always has been, always will be.
Personally I can’t wait for Longhorn. Imagine what OS XII will look like by the time that old M$ dinosaur gets released! We’ll probably be using 3TB optical hard drives by then, just as fast as the 120GB of RAM in my 10Ghz G7.
Bora et al:
Poor Microsoft, because they are so “popular” they are the sad victims of hackers. Of course, this statement ignores completely how vulnerable the MS OS actually is. If the most popular vehicle in USA caught fire weekly and randomly you could be sure that there would be a massive public outcry and an immediate recall. Unfortunately, because machines are toasted and not living human beings we are expected to feel pity for the company that manufactures the crap OS.
Point is, those who make computer OS�s are obligated to make the OS�s as impervious to infection as possible. Those who purchase an OS that is more likely to be infected are demonstrating ignorance or stupidity if there is a safer alternative (i.e. OS X). Please spare me your whining about having to purchase a whole new computer and accoutrements. You have already made your choice, live with it. When the pain becomes too much you will find the dough to switch.
Seahawk:
Bill bought Sun so he could have more people to repackage the boxes labeled “Longhorn” with those re-labeled “XP Reloaded”. Of course, each box includes a 12-gauge magnum shell with saboted slugs to put a Windows machine out of its misery. Thus the emphasis on reloaded. Poor bastards� must have missed with the first shot.
meat: MS is really weird untill you get they are only people wallets and all the smoke they pouff at customers’ eyes is to hide that.
Aha, entrusted platform and computing my A$$.
that is, ‘only *after* people wallets’ …
An interesting article that I traced from MacSurfer that explains much of the history leading to windoze lack of security. Bora, this helps to explain some of the fundamental differences that lead m$ to have far more security updates (see Seahawk’s link earlier). It’s actually quite an eye opener.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15305
Even with a cable connection, it took forever to connect to MS’s website and download these updates. And after freezing up my XP during the install, and manually rebooting (CTL-ALT-DEL didn’t work), I have given up.
I want my money back.
After reading some PC forums, I have discovered I am not alone with the problems associatated with downloading and installing this “update”.
I still want my money back.
Qman: have a co-worker here who gave up after XP froze 4 times. He still is without update installed.
Asked whether was the same with OS X, I just rolled eyes and replied “how long till you open your eyes”
He is ripe.
Bora,
– Is the reason why no one robs Fort Knox is because there is only one Fort Knox or its security?
– Apache has higher marketshare than Microsoft IIS. Guess which one is attacked more.
…at least MS fixes its problems
…still no fix for the latest Apple trojan
�
Nobody robs Fort Knox, but people rob liquor stores and small banks often enough and they’re widespread. It’s also my understanding that MS got rid of the Dos backbone altogether with WinXP.
I’ve been a long time windows user and found that it stopped crashing on me (with blue screens and the like) once I started using win2k and above. I’ve also never really fallen victim to viruses, hacks or any other security exploits either; Granted I’ve only used my machine for school, web stuff and games.
Not to be a troll or anything, but I just have a hard time believing how anything can be that stable and secure. I just recently started using macs so maybe that’s why?
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