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Notes: Patch Tuesday And Remote Management
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-11-14
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The mildest patch update from Microsoft since it skipped one in March 2007 took place this week, and LANDesk launched its Gateway Appliance for managing patches and other updates for remote devices.
If you were looking for a Macrovision patch from Microsoft as the Critical issue being repaired on Tuesday, keep looking.
They did fix the problem with URI handling in Windows. We reported on the URI handling problem in July, where the issue with Internet Explorer's failure to validate input posed a threat when a URI handler passed it along.
"Microsoft has only identified ways to exploit this vulnerability on systems using Internet Explorer 7," Microsoft said in the update. "However, the vulnerability exists in a Windows file, Shell32.dll, which is included in all supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003."
A second issue corrected by Microsoft fixed a vulnerability in DNS that could have enabled a successful spoofing attack. That would have allowed traffic to be redirected from a legitimate site to a different destination, without the individual realizing what had happened.
Such issues compound work for security pros who have to manage an increasingly remote workforce. We talked to LANDesk ahead of Microsoft's Patch Tuesday releases about their new Gateway Appliance aimed at that task.
Nathan McLain, product manager at LANDesk, said the new device enables remote management of patches and updates on those mobile platforms.
The Gateway Appliance is a hardened Linux device using the 2.6 kernel, and the minimum features needed to make it suited for the purpose. It can handle 5,000 concurrent connections, with a background agent taking care of the work on the remote device.
Companies with large sales teams tend to have a need for this capability, as the background agent works with the Appliance to take care of the updating needed without user intervention. This keeps those distant workers from suffering unprofitable downtime during the update period.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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