Category Archives: Windows

Internet, Microsoft, Security, Things that are bad, Windows

Microsoft news: all bad today

February 10, 2020 jrivett Leave a comment

The hits just keep on coming for Microsoft. I suppose it’s inevitable that a company as large as Microsoft will make mistakes, but when their products reach into our lives as thoroughly as Microsoft’s, those mistakes can lead to major disasters.

Global Windows 10 search failures

A huge proportion of Windows 10 users worldwide lost the ability to search their own computers recently. According to Microsoft, the problem stemmed from a glitch on a Microsoft server. Exactly why local search should be affected by some mysterious remote Microsoft server is yet to be explained.

In reality, search in Windows has been variously broken since Vista. I discovered a particularly horrible search bug in that garbage dump of an O/S soon after it was released, and was eventually able to convince Microsoft that it was a real problem; a fix soon followed. But even that didn’t fix all of Windows search’s problems; getting it to find all your files in all their locations was — and continues to be — a never-ending, and ultimately ineffective, exercise.

That’s why most people who need a search function that’s actually useful have long since switched to third party software, such as the excellent, fast, accurate, and free Fileseek. There’s also the blazingly fast (and also free) Everything. Both of these work perfectly out of the box, requiring no special setup to be useful, unlike Windows’ built-in search.

Still, many people assume that the Windows search feature is adequate, and never switch to anything else. Those people discovered the recent problem the hard way, when the already basically worthless search stopped working completely. Those people are understandably angry.

Implicit trust of driver software is a gaping security hole in Windows

Malicious folks have discovered yet another way to fool Windows into executing code that it shouldn’t. The new technique takes advantage of the fact that Windows implicitly trusts drivers. A driver is a small piece of software that connects Windows with hardware, allowing that hardware to be used by the O/S.

In this case, a specific driver that contains a serious security vulnerability — but is neverthless trusted by Windows — was used by hackers to deploy ransomware to affected systems.

There’s no word from Microsoft on how they intend to deal with this glaring hole in Windows security.

A treasure trove of illicit data awaits the buyer of corp.com, thanks to Microsoft

Decisions made by Microsoft years ago are poised to create massive problems for many business and educational customers worldwide. When the person who owns the generic corp.com domain sells it, the new owner will be able to gather credentials and other supposedly private data from Windows computers that assume they are communicating with internal systems.

The problem stems from an ill-considered decision to use corp.com as a default setting and in documentation provided by Microsoft. Server administrators who didn’t change that default are now faced with a huge task that involves bringing down entire networks and possibly creating new problems.

Microsoft has known about this problem for years, and their advice to customers is basically “you shouldn’t have used the defaults”. Thanks for nothing, Microsoft.

Chrome, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Things that are bad, Things that make me happy, Windows 10

Microsoft news: the good, the bad, and the spiteful

January 30, 2020 jrivett Leave a comment

The Good

Windows 7 support ended earlier this month, and with it any hope of fixing newly-discovered security vulnerabilities. Or did it? Microsoft recently discovered a problem with an update, released in Novemeber 2019, that is causing problems with desktop wallpaper on Windows 7 computers. This isn’t a security issue, but it probably affects thousands of users, and Microsoft has now released a special update that fixes the wallpaper problem. You can get the update via Windows Update on Windows 7 computers.

The Bad

Microsoft’s plans for expanding advertising in Windows 10 continue, albeit very slowly. The latest change is in Windows 10’s default rich text editor, Wordpad. When you run Wordpad, you’ll see an advertisement for Microsoft Office. It’s not much, and many users will never see it, but I’m reminded of the proverbial frog in steadily-warming water.

The Spiteful

Microsoft’s shenanigans with Google show no signs of slowing down. Both companies have engaged in questionable behaviour in trying to promote their software and services. The latest shot from Microsoft is particularly annoying: when Office 365 updates itself — a process that is both frequent and difficult to control — it will look for an installation of Google’s Chrome web browser, and change its default search engine to Bing.

Microsoft has a history of inappropriately reverting settings during updates, which is annoying enough, but this is excessive and downright spiteful, in my opinion. Microsoft, please play out your differences with Google in a way that doesn’t annoy millions of users.

Update 2020Feb11: Microsoft relented, and won’t be switching Windows 10 searches to use Bing during Office 365 updates. I guess they realized that they didn’t need yet another public relations disaster.

Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows

Patch Tuesday for January 2020; end of support for Windows 7

January 14, 2020 jrivett Leave a comment

The first Patch Tuesday for 2020 arrives with the long-planned but still inconvenient end of meaningful support for Windows 7.

The venerable Windows 7 still runs on about a quarter of all PCs worldwide. Sticking with Windows 7 was — and continues to be — a conscious decision for many users, made because Windows 8 and 10 were problematic for a variety of reasons.

Microsoft killed support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014, but still released updates for that O/S on a couple of occasions when a security vulnerability was so severe that it seemed likely to cause massive problems if unpatched. Microsoft will probably do the same thing for Windows 7, but it’s not a good idea to rely on the goodwill of any large corporation.

So, if you’re running Windows 7, what should you do? You can upgrade to Windows 8.1, which will buy you some time, until its support ends on January 10, 2023. Or you can stop resisting and make the move to Windows 10. Many of the initial problems with — and objections to — Windows 10 have now been addressed, making it somewhat less unpalatable. Microsoft offers additional guidance on the Windows 7 support ended on January 14, 2020 page on the Microsoft support site.

Another sensible option would be to switch to Linux. There are now Linux distributions that feel a lot like Windows, which can ease the transition. The main problem is software. But even if the software you use has no Linux version, you can still run an older version of Windows in a virtual machine on your Linux computer. That’s not too helpful for high-end games, however.

Back to our regularly scheduled updates…

There are thirty-nine updates (and associated bulletins) from Microsoft this month, addressing fifty vulnerabilities in Windows, .NET, Internet Explorer, and Office. Eight of the updates are flagged with Critical severity.

Although there are other ways to obtain the updates, by far the simplest method is to use Windows Update, which is found in the Windows 10 settings, or the Control Panel in older versions.

Update 2020Jan15: One of the vulnerabilities addressed in yesterday’s updates was reported to Microsoft by the NSA. While there’s disagreement about the seriousness of the vulnerability, this is notable in that the NSA previously wasn’t interested in sharing its discovered vulnerabilities. Lack of NSA cooperation led to the WannaCry ransomware nightmare in 2017. Brian Krebs has more.

While it’s generally a good idea to cross your fingers and install all available Microsoft updates, or at least allow them to be installed automatically, some Windows 10 users have grown wary of updates, and configured Windows Updates to be delayed. The actual risk from this vulnerability is mostly for Windows Server 2016 computers that are exposed to the Internet, and Windows 10 computers normally used by people with administrator permissions.

Update 2020Jan17: There’s more useful information about the NSA-reported vulnerability from Ars Technica, and SANS. SANS has created a web page and download that you can use to test your computers for this vulnerability.

Adobe, Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows

Patch Tuesday for December 2019

December 12, 2019 jrivett Leave a comment

This month we’ve got a new version of Reader from Adobe, along with the usual heap of updates affecting Microsoft software.

Analysis of Microsoft’s Security Update Guide for December shows that there are thirty-two updates in all, affecting Internet Explorer 9 through 11; Office 365, 2013, 2016, and 2019; Visual Studio; Windows 7, 8.1, and 10; and Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2019. Thirty-seven vulnerabilities (CVEs) are addressed, of which seven are flagged as having Critical severity.

The easiest way to install Microsoft updates is via the Windows Update Control Panel (prior to Windows 10) or Settings > Update & Security on Windows 10.

Adobe released updates for several of its software products on Tuesday, but the only one likely to be installed on your computers is the ubiquitous Acrobat Reader DC, Adobe’s free PDF file viewer.

A new version of Acrobat Reader DC, 2019.021.20058, addresses at least twenty-one vulnerabilities in previous versions.

Recent versions of Reader seem to keep themselves updated, but if you use Reader to view PDF files from dubious sources, you should definitely check whether your Reader is up to date. Do that by running it, then choosing Check for Updates... from the Help menu.

About CVEs

I usually refer to security bugs as vulnerabilities. There’s another term that I sometimes use (see above): CVE. That’s an abbreviation for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures. If you’d like to know more, there’s a helpful post about CVEs over on the SecurityTrails web site. Here’s a quote:

CVE was launched in 1999 by the MITRE Corporation, a nonprofit sponsored by the National Cyber Security Division, or NCSD. When a researcher or a company discovers a new vulnerability or an exposure, they add them to the CVE list so other organizations can leverage this data and protect their systems.

It’s a worthwhile read, even for non-technical folks.

Crapware, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Things that are bad, Windows 10

Patch Tuesday for September 2019

September 10, 2019 jrivett Leave a comment

It’s another Patch Tuesday, and this month we have the usual pile from Microsoft, along with a new version of Flash.

Analysis of the summary spreadsheet — helpfully provided by Microsoft on the Security Update Guide site — shows that there are forty-nine updates, addressing eighty vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, .NET, Edge and Office. Seventeen of the vulnerabilities are critical.

Those of you running Windows 10 will get these updates automatically, unless you’ve explicitly configured Windows to delay updates. Everyone else should navigate to Windows Update in the Windows Control Panel or Windows Settings.

The new version of Flash is 32.0.0.255. It addresses two critical security bugs in earlier versions, both of which were discovered and reported by independent security researchers.

Anyone who still uses Flash, especially if it’s enabled in any web browser, should update Flash as soon as possible. Go to the Flash applet in the Windows Control Panel to check your version and install the new version.

Adobe, Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows

Patch Tuesday for August 2019

August 13, 2019 jrivett Leave a comment

It’s another day of updates, with the usual load from Microsoft, and a new version of Reader from Adobe.

Analysis of the monthly data dump from Microsoft’s Security Update Guide shows that this month we have fifty-two updates (with associated bulletins), addressing ninety-five vulnerabilities in Office applications, Windows, Internet Explorer 9 through 11, Edge, Exchange, SharePoint, and Windows Defender.

Twenty-nine of the vulnerabilities are characterised as having Critical severity, and all of the usual nightmarish potential impacts are represented, including Denial of Service, Elevation of Privilege, Information Disclosure, Remote Code Execution, Security Feature Bypass, Spoofing, and Tampering.

If you’re running Windows 10, there’s not much you can do to avoid these updates, although you can at least delay them. The risks associated with installing updates as soon as they become available are still arguably lower that the risks of delaying them as much as possible, or somehow avoiding them altogether.

In this particular case, however, you definitely should install the updates immediately. That’s because they include fixes for a set of dangerous vulnerabilities in RDS (Remote Desktop Services) in all versions of Windows, including Windows 10. Still not convinced? This month’s updates also include a fix for a terrible vulnerability in the Text Services Framework that’s existed in all versions of Windows since XP. The RDS and Text Services vulnerabilities were discovered very recently; no related exploits or attacks have been observed, but it’s a safe bet that malicious persons are working on exploits right now.

Anyway, as always, Windows Update is your friend. Your annoying, can’t-seem-to-shake-them kind of friend.

Adobe released updates for several of its products today, of which only Acrobat Reader presents a significant risk, because malicious hacker types enjoy embedding various kinds of nastiness in PDF files, pretty much every computer on Earth has Acrobat Reader installed, and most people with computers open PDF files without even thinking about the risk.

The latest Acrobat Reader (DC Continuous, which is the variant most likely to be installed on your computer) is version 2019.012.20036. It addresses at least seventy-six security vulnerabilities in previous versions. The release bulletin gives credit to a number of non-Adobe security researchers who discovered and reported some of the vulnerabilities.

You can check your version of Acrobat Reader by navigating its menu to Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Also on the Help menu is the handy Check for Updates option, which is probably the easiest way to update Reader.

Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows

Patch Tuesday for July 2019

July 9, 2019 jrivett Leave a comment

Microsoft’s Security Update Guide provides the raw material for understanding each month’s pile of patches, but it’s not exactly easy to use in its current form. I use the almost-hidden Download link to the far right of the Security Updates heading about halfway down the page. The downloaded file is an Excel spreadsheet, which I find much easier to navigate that the SUG site. Your mileage may vary.

This month, Microsoft has issued sixty-seven updates and associated bulletins. The updates address seventy-eight vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, Edge, Office, Office Services and Web Apps, Azure DevOps, Open Source Software, .NET Framework, Azure, SQL Server, ASP.NET, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Exchange Server.

The vulnerabilities range from Moderate to Critical in severity, and they can lead to one or more of the usual horrors, including Denial of Service, Elevation of Privilege, Remote Code Execution, Information Disclosure, Spoofing, and Security Feature Bypass. Brrrrr.

Release Notes for July 2019 Security Updates

By far the easiest way to install all these updates is to let Windows Update do the work. Of course to some extent that means trusting Microsoft not to hose your computer, so there’s that. My current thinking is that I’m willing to trust Microsoft to do this, as long as they at least give me a way to roll back any faulty updates.

Adobe released some security updates to coincide with Microsoft’s patch cycle, but none for the ubiquitous Flash Player or Acrobat Reader.

Adobe, Edge, Flash, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows

Patch Tuesday for June 2019

June 11, 2019 jrivett Leave a comment

It’s update time once again, and along with the updates from Microsoft and Adobe, I’m going to annoy you with yet another reminder that Only You Can Prevent Internet Worms. That sounds kind of gross, actually.

Analysis of the Security Update Guide spreadsheet, so thoughtfully provided by Microsoft each month, shows that this month there are thirty-three updates, addressing eighty-eight security vulnerabilities in Windows (7, 8.1, 10, and Server); Flash in Internet Explorer and Edge; Internet Explorer 9 through 11; Edge; and Office 2010, 2016, and 2019. At least twenty-one of the vulnerabilities are categorized as Critical.

If you missed last month’s update festivities, you may not be aware that there’s a very dangerous vulnerability (CVE-2019-0708) in Microsoft’s Remote Desktop feature in Windows XP, Windows 7, and Server 2008. Updates for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 computers are available in the usual way, via Windows Update. An update for Windows XP is also available, but you’ll have to download and install it manually, from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

I’m pestering you about this because the last time a vulnerability like this appeared, we got the global WannaCry worm mess. Patch those systems and prevent a similar worm from giving the world another major headache. Here’s Microsoft on the subject, as well as Ars Technica.

As usual, Adobe has released software updates to coincide with Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, which makes things nice and tidy with Flash being integrated into IE and Edge. Flash 32.0.0.207 fixes a single security vulnerability.

There are a few ways to update Flash on Windows, but starting with the Flash Player Control Panel works for me. On the Flash CP’s Updates tab, you’ll find a Check Now button, which will take you to the Get Adobe Flash page. That will tell you which version you’re running. If you need an update, click the Player Download Center link on that page.

Edge, Flash, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows, Windows XP

Patch Tuesday for May 2019

May 14, 2019 jrivett Leave a comment

From Microsoft this month, we get forty-six updates, addressing seventy-nine distinct vulnerabilities in the usual gang of idiots, namely Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Edge, .NET, Flash in Internet Explorer, and Visual Studio. Nineteen of the updates have been flagged with Critical severity. Head over to Microsoft’s Security Update Guide for more details.

Those of you running Windows 10 may actually be satisfied with its automatic updates, despite the problems. Either that or you’ve given up fighting Microsoft. And of course there are plenty of folks running Windows 7 and 8 with automatic updates enabled, in response to which I can only tip my hat and tell you that you’re braver than I. The rest of us will (or should) be making the trudge over to Windows Update today.

Microsoft dons a white hat

One of the updates made available by Microsoft today fixes a serious vulnerability (CVE-2019-0708) in older versions of Windows, including Windows 7, XP, and Server 2008. Despite the fact that official support for these versions has ended, Microsoft decided to make the world a slightly better place, taking the time to develop, test, and publish these updates. Which is good, because the hole being fixed is a bad one, in that it could provide a handy new conduit for malicious software worms to propagate… just like WannaCry did in 2017.

So, two things: first of all, thanks Microsoft! Second, if you run Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 computers, please check Windows Update and install the May 2019 monthly security rollup as described on this Microsoft page. For any computers running Windows XP, you’ll have to download the appropriate update from the Microsoft Update Catalog, as decribed on this Microsoft page.

More about Microsoft’s unusual move

Adobe

Adobe’s contribution this month consists of new versions of Flash and Acrobat Reader. Flash 32.0.0.192 addresses a single security vulnerability, while Acrobat Reader DC 2019.012.20034 addresses a whopping eighty-four vulnerabilities in earlier versions.

Reader will generally update itself, but you can make sure by navigating its menu to Help > Check for Updates.... The easiest way to update Flash is to look for it in the Windows Control Panel. Go to the Updates tab of the Flash control panel widget and click Check Now. This will take you indirectly to the download page for Flash. Make sure you opt out of any additional software offered for install on that page.

boot13