A Microsoft patch meant to fix critical security flaws in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is causing trouble for some users, the company said Friday.
The patch was released Tuesday to fix four Windows flaws, including one that experts predict will be exploited by a worm in the coming days. The flaw, tagged "critical" by Microsoft, lies in a Windows component for transaction processing called the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator, or MSDTC.
Installing the patch can cause serious problems, Microsoft said in an advisory posted to its Web site Friday. The patch could lock users out of their PC, prevent the Windows Firewall from starting, block certain applications from running or installing, and empty the network connections folder, among other things, the software maker said.
View: Resolution from Microsoft Support
News source: C|Net News
The patch was released Tuesday to fix four Windows flaws, including one that experts predict will be exploited by a worm in the coming days. The flaw, tagged "critical" by Microsoft, lies in a Windows component for transaction processing called the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator, or MSDTC.
Installing the patch can cause serious problems, Microsoft said in an advisory posted to its Web site Friday. The patch could lock users out of their PC, prevent the Windows Firewall from starting, block certain applications from running or installing, and empty the network connections folder, among other things, the software maker said.
View: Resolution from Microsoft Support News source: C|Net News
Alright. Fine. People tend to steal cars. I give them credit. I sure don't have the guts to do it, but if I did, I certainly would pick a car that blends in. You know, not a high end sports car, for example. They did the right thing by picking a Ford Escort. Lots of those around, right?
Well, unfortunately, this dark blue Ford Escort had a missing hubcap, and the license plates were from Missouri. Strike one, guys....you live in Florida.
But wait, kids....that's not all. They happened to find this diamond in the rough at the gas station. Unbeknownst to them, the car's owner, Pam Pease, was employed at the gas station. So off they went, obviously giddy with excitement that they pulled off the heist.
Around 7:30, Pease realized her car had been stolen, and reported it to the authorities.
Obviously not on their way to Bible study, Castillo and Garcia noted that the car needed gas. Oh noes.
And now we see the evolution of a criminal's mind. Minds that are so sharp when it comes to doing the actual crime but become dull as as river rocks afterwards.
Back to the police. Deputies were entering the stolen vehicle data into the computer when they received the second call from Parade employees that the car had reappeared. Obviously a mistake, right? The entire Pensacola police had not even been alerted from the dispatcher that the car was stolen.
Well, the brilliant thieving minds came back to the same gas station to get some gas. Hey...the place was friendly enough to give us a car, why not gas!
Pease was sweeping up cigarette butts when all of a sudden here comes her Escort, rolling into the service station. Strike two guys. Nguyen, who speaks Spanish, asked the pair what they were doing back at the station.
"They told him they needed gas," Pease said.
Nguyen shut off the vehicle and offered the men water while co-workers called 911. They must have thought..."Free cars, free gas, free water!! This is the best gas station evar!"
Police arrived and after a short foot chase, the two were apprehended and were charged with grand theft auto and resisting arrest. They are being held in the Escambia County Jail on $7,500 bond each.
"That's a new one. Maybe they were lost," noted Sgt. Ted Roy, Sheriff's Office spokesman. "Crimes like that are good for our job security."
And also good for a laugh.
Since the weekend is slow in terms of tech news, we will try to enlighten you on the strange news that you may not have seen on your late local news. Neowin's Strange News of the Week will hopefully show you, our esteemed readers, that your life isn't all that bad. -- BOOG
News source: The Pensecola News Journal
I think locking out the admin group and system account would be stupid, but it seems to fail even if unprivileged users don't have read acccess to it. Huh?? Why should that at all matter for the patch system and fix? Isn't that run with admin/SYSTEM rights anyway?
Microsoft's "fix"? To give everyone using your computer access to the Windows folder again...
Last edited by 21023 on 17 Oct 2005 - 10:02
Not sure I would call "READ" permissions to the "registration" folder and its files, and the ability to transverse the parent folder(s).. so that the registration folder can be read - access to the windows folder?
Did you even read the article?
Yes, in specific it's about the Registration folder under the Windows folder, but why should admins bother with making that one an exception when they haven't ever needed to before? Sounds like a crappy fix if it's about opening up your security just for this patch to work to me (and even mess up parts of your install if you don't). What's next? Poking a hole in your firewall to help a patch do its job?
Something is very wrong when they release this patch without a warning of its requirements of how the system is setup.
Last edited by 21023 on 17 Oct 2005 - 12:51
What?? Dude again I have to ask -- did you read the article? The ONLY reason there could be an ISSUE is if the "DEFAULT" permissions where changed..
Systems that have changed the default Access Control List permissions on the %windir%registration directory may experience various problems
Why should an admin remove the ability for the users of the machine to READ a folder and its files?? That quite clearly is required for the OS, and or some sub functions to perform correctly..
Do you remove the ability of users of the machine to READ /etc or /bin on a nix box?
Virii is actually the plural of 'man' if I'm not mistaken.
Unless you meant 'That's worse than some men'
yeah your right, damn been wrong all these years
Last edited by 33280 on 17 Oct 2005 - 15:18
i wondered where all my ftp site dissappeared to in the connections folder
Last edited by 25229 on 21 Oct 2005 - 14:59
internet.......problem solved!!
Yeah, like that will happen on my computer
Follow steps in the KB if system is effected. I highly doubt that even 1 computer in 1 million has had permissions changed on windir folder.
and with Microsoft's track record, they should have a legion of people testing their stuff before they let it out for the public...
People are programmers, people make mistakes. And this one seems to be due to an admin removing read permissions unnecessarily. Sort of an unusual situation to begin with.
I am not a Microsoft fan, by any stretch of the imagination, but mistakes happen. Some fixes will introduce problems to a minority of boxes. These will be fixed, I am reasonably sure.
people do make mistakes, that's why they need to test these things before they are released...
and with Microsoft's track record, they should have a legion of people testing their stuff before they let it out for the public...
I do believe MS tests the patches , but not on millions of diferent configurations.
Software is created by human beings and human beings makes mistakes like this for example. I don blame ms for this, it will get fixed I 100% sure of it.
Testing software, doesn't mean it will work for 100% on all the configurations.
Last edited by 108898 on 17 Oct 2005 - 16:23
Lets keep it clean guys. Everyone makes mistakes.
Microsoft uses shutdown /r /t:0
I know for a fact that aborting with shutdown -a on Windows (2000, anyhow) box does not work. It complains, and you must use the /a option.
Go figure.
{ DO }
------------[ Batch ]----------
CLS
@echo off
setlocal
set PATHTOFIXES=G:TempPreSP3
echo.
echo Installing Microsoft Java Virtual Machine...
echo Q816093_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%Q816093_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe /N /Z /Q /U
;
; More here
;
echo.
echo Installing Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer...
echo WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe /F /N /Q /U
exit
----------------[ End ]------------
{ DON'Ts }
------------[ Batch ]-------------
CLS
@echo off
setlocal
set PATHTOFIXES=G:TempPreSP3
echo.
echo Installing Security Update in Network Connection Manager Could Allow DoS Attack...
echo WindowsXP-KB905414-x86-ENU.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%WindowsXP-KB905414-x86-ENU.exe /N /Z /Q /M /U
;
; More here
;
echo.
echo Installing Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer...
echo WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe /N /Z /Q /M /U
echo.
echo Computer is now shutting down in 15 seconds...
shutdown -r -t 15
EXIT
---------[ End of batch script ]------------
This will lock up the computer. When I say lock up, you can't log in even if you have the right username or password...
{ DOs }
@echo off
setlocal
set PATHTOFIXES=G:TempPreSP3
echo.
echo Installing Microsoft Java Virtual Machine...
echo Q816093_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%Q816093_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe /N /Z /Q /U
;
; More here
;
echo.
echo Installing Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer...
echo WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe /F /N /Q /U
exit
{ DON'Ts }
@echo off
setlocal
set PATHTOFIXES=G:TempPreSP3
echo.
echo Installing Security Update in Network Connection Manager Could Allow DoS Attack...
echo WindowsXP-KB905414-x86-ENU.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%WindowsXP-KB905414-x86-ENU.exe /N /Z /Q /U
;
; More here
;
echo.
echo Installing Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer...
echo WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe
%PATHTOFIXES%WindowsXP-KB896688-x86-ENU.exe /N /Z /Q /U
echo.
echo Computer is now shutting down in 15 seconds...
shutdown -r -t 15
EXIT
This will lock up the computer. When I say lock up, you can't log in even if you have the right username or password...
Here's yet another reason NOT to immediately apply patches.
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