Weekly Microsoft Critical Security Issue

An anonymous reader sent in linkage to a zd story discussing the latest Windows Security Patches including an especially nice hole letting Java apps gain total control of your machine and assist you in reclaiming disk space by, say, reformating your drive.

It's about time...

[slide-rule]

... that my Java skills can be used for evil, rather than good. ;-)

Reformatting my hard drive

[s20451]

That'll work out great. I just downloaded the RH9 ISOs.

Thank Goodness...

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't run sendmail! Can you imagine having to keep up with patching Windows AND sendmail?!

JDK

[WPIDalamar]

Good thing Microsoft JRE is so broken, that all exploits ended up not working!

Write once, debug everwhere.

Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

/* sarcasm */

Finally someone wrote something to get rid of all that spyware thats installed itself on my system! Thank you MS!

More Anti-MS FUD!

[Anonvmous Coward]

Geez guys, why can't you go a day without publishing anti-MS crap! Don't you think that if this were really a problem that people'd be aff.... K(R*AB(*D [NO CARRIER]

hard disk could be formatted? ok

[SourceHammer]

One of the vulnerabilities in the VM if exploited could allow your hard disk to be formatted. Well, that takes care of that problem.

Dilemma.

[Anonymous Coward]

So I now have two options.

* Let baddies in at their will.
* Run Windows Update, expose my machine to Msoft, sign away my soul through the patch EULA.

Help!

This just in...

[Znonymous Coward]

From the office of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (aka Baghdad Bob):

"Lies all Lies! The infidel Linux computers are not secure. The coilation will fall in the wake of the mighty secure Microsoft operating system!"

More at 11.

Man, they're makin' it easy!

[jpsst34]

"...and assist you in reclaiming disk space by, say, reformating your drive."

Well, that takes care of the wicked-long step 1 in uninstalling windows and installing linux! [linuxworld.com]

That is, of course, if this vulnerability affects the version I'm running - Windows Herpes Edition.

Let the Slashdot Madlibs Begin. . .

[Fritz Benwalla]

Let me save many of us some time:

"Well here we go again. A gaping security hole in Microsoft [ Operating System ]. This never would have happened if Bill Gates weren't just trying to make more money so he could buy more [ plural noun ] to fill up his mansion in [ place ]

This is just one more reason why [ circuit court ] should [ verb ] that [ expletive ] company once and for all.

[ Unix-based operating system ] only had this problem [ number ] in it's entire history, and there was a patch posted in under [ number ] minutes!

[ Text-based word processor ] rulez! Micr- [ Insulting variation on 'soft' ] is the [ Traditional evil diety ]!"

-----

i'm okay

[misterhaan]

see, this is why i print out all of the data on my hard drives in binary every weekend.

So Happy It's Thursday

[wowbagger]

Well, it is now officially Thursday. Aa I've said before, I think there should be an
Official
So
Happy
It's
Thursday for announcing MS holes.

This is great!

[rsilvergun]

"...assist you in reclaiming disk space by, say, reformating your drive." I've been looking for a good disk partitioning tool, and along comes Microsoft to help me out. Anyone know if a Linux port is in the works?

Pre-emption

[mysterious_mark]

This clearly is a bug of 'Mass Destruction', the only thing a responsible democracy can do is invade Redmond, and pull down Bill Gates statue, Is the 10th infanty div still busy? MM

That's not a problem at all...

[clausiam]

The offending applet would have to set the evil bit in its packets anyway... ;-)

Re:It's about time...

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

Do you use your Java skills for good, or for awesome?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Iraqi Information Minister says

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no hole that will grant Java applications unauthorised access. I swear by God, I swear by God, those who believe this are being tricked, it is a trick.

You can install Java safely. Nothing there, nothing at all.

Just look carefully, I only want you to look carefully. Do not repeat the lies of liars. Do not become like them. Once again, I blame linux zealots. Please, make sure of what you say and do not play such a role.

my home page [welovethei...nister.com]

Re:Applets, not apps.

[Sloppy]

..while applets are supposed to be harmless.

They revised it to "mostly harmless."

Slashdotted already....

[pe1chl]

Looks like windowsupdate is heavily slashdotted :-)

Re:It's about time...

[FuzzyMan45]

The word awesome has been deprecated. We now only use good and some prefixes. So, i think the question is, do you use it for Good, or for doubleplusgood.

Re:Clueless

[sheldon]

I'm assuming the above post is a troll, but I'll respond anyways.

Microsoft issues security bulletins for all of their software. Windows, Exchange, SQL Server, SNA Server, ISA Server, Biztalk, etc. etc. etc.

So this was a count of all security bulletins issued by Microsoft, as well as all security bulletins issued by Redhat.

Also Redhat doesn't support their software for nearly as long a period of time as does Microsoft. So while bulletins are still issued for NT4, you won't find any for Redhat 5.0.

"Plus, it's been documented many times before that bugfixes are available much quicker in the OS world than the MS world."

You were looking for an example of a lie... there you go.

devil known

[spoonyfork]

The Virtual Machine (VM) flaw is the most serious, meriting a "critical" rating from Microsoft.

This jumped off the page at me. Could someone explain the value of Microsoft's merits of their own flaws?