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Internet Security Systems has released a patch to fix a hole in its firewall software that could allow malicious hackers to take over the computer.

The Atlanta-based ISS released the patch late Friday to plug the hole in its BlackICE Defender and BlackICE Agent firewall software that is designed to block hackers.

The vulnerability affects all current versions running on Windows XP and Windows 2000, ISS said.

It could also allow remote attackers to crash the BlackICE software. But ISS said the risk to corporate customers is minimal because most firewalls used in companies already block the kind of repetitious traffic used for that kind of attack.

The patch is available at the ISS Web site.

Download: Patch for Black Ice Defender/Agent Firewall
News source: C|Net News.com

Microsoft's offensive

Friday's legal barrage indicates Microsoft does not want a replay of its settlement disaster in the more than 100 private consumer cases stemming from the larger antitrust trial. A federal judge in Baltimore rejected a proposed settlement where Microsoft would donate $1 billion in monies, software, services and training to needy schools. The judge agreed with critics calling the giveaway anticompetitive.

"Microsoft doesn't want a repeat performance of the class-action settlement," said Emmett Stanton, an antitrust attorney with Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, Calif. "Microsoft won't let go of the Justice Department settlement without a fight."

In an expected legal brief, the litigating states and Microsoft detailed their differences over the facts of the case in preparation for the remedy hearing. These differences indicate a wide gulf between the two sides. The non-settling states and Microsoft laid out more than 850 facts of the case, only a handful of which are undisputed, or agreed on by the two sides.

In an unexpected filing, Microsoft accused Oracle Vice President Ken Glueck of being one of the "prime movers" in the states' drafting their remedy proposal. The company made a similar accusation against AOL Time Warner in another brief filed last month.

Microsoft made charges against both companies in legal briefs asking the court to compel the competitors to turn over requested documents as part of the discovery phase for the remedy hearing. Discovery ends Feb 22. Microsoft later resolved its differences with AOL Time Warner, but not before accusing the media titan of submitting to the litigating states a 39-page remedy that sharply resembled the states' proposal to the court.

Microsoft has long charged competitors with trying to interfere with the legal process, particularly on the side of the states, either directly or indirectly through a number of trade groups, such as ProComp. Both AOL Time Warner and Oracle back ProComp. Microsoft contends that interference and not the merits of the case led to the states' December remedy proposal.

The Justice Department settlement would restrict Microsoft's business practices but have little impact on software development or deployment--areas the litigating states contend require stiff oversight. They argue that a unanimous, seven-judge appeals court ruling, which last year upheld eight separate antitrust violations against Microsoft, demands tougher sanctions. Among other things, the states want Microsoft to give away the source code to its Internet Explorer Web browser.

Microsoft argues that such restrictions would be more to the benefit of competitors than consumers and that Oracle is withholding information to the software giant's benefit. In its Friday filing, Microsoft argued that the documents Oracle is withholding "are likely to contain factual information about Microsoft, Microsoft's competitors and various markets as a whole."

Microsoft on Friday also filed with the court its final witness list, which includes Glueck, presumably to discuss his role in the states' drafting their remedy proposal. The company also plans to tentatively bring top decision makers to testify, but left an out for Ballmer and Gates depending on the outcome of the evidentiary presentation made by the litigating states. Gates has yet to testify in the antitrust case brought in May 1998, although he appeared during the original trial by taped deposition legal experts say largely hurt Microsoft.

Other key executives also are tentatively scheduled to testify, but with the possibility of being removed from the list: Jim Allchin, group vice president over Windows; Linda Averett, product unit manager for the Windows Digital Media Platform Division; Chris Jones, corporate vice president with the Windows Client Division; Will Poole, vice president with the Windows Digital Media group; and Brian Valentine, senior vice president with Windows Division.

Six other Microsoft executives are listed to testify, as well as 21 third-party witnesses, including executives from Best Buy, Compaq Computer, Quest Communications and Unisys. Advanced Micro Devices CEO W.J. Sanders also is on the list.

"The states' proposals, if adopted, would harm many companies in the PC industry as well as small businesses and consumers," said Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler. "Our witnesses represent this broad range of interests."

The states offered a sparser list of 16 witnesses, which includes, among others, former Netscape CEO James Barksdale. Barksdale, whose former company was at the heart of the antitrust case, has remained a fixture of the case. A Barksdale letter introduced during a December Senate Judiciary hearing on the Microsoft galvanized lawmakers.