Microsoft pushes February updates to March

Estimated reading time: 1 minute.

In an unprecedented move, Microsoft has decided to delay all February updates until next Patch Tuesday, which is March 14. It’s still not clear exactly why this is happening, but Microsoft is working on structural changes to the Windows Update system, so presumably something went horribly wrong in testing.

This is bad news for anyone who runs a server that’s vulnerable to a recently-discovered SMB flaw that was expected to be fixed with Tuesday’s updates.

Update 2017Feb23: Meanwhile, Google’s Project Zero went ahead and published the details of another vulnerability (in the GDI graphics library) that was supposed to be fixed this month. This was done in keeping with GPZ’s own policy, but as usual Microsoft isn’t happy about it.

Update 2017Feb28: Yet another vulnerability that was expected to be fixed in the February updates from Microsoft was just revealed by GPZ. This one affects Internet Explorer and Edge, and it’s ranked highly severe.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

One thought on “Microsoft pushes February updates to March”

Leave a Reply