Service Pack to Fix Service Pack?!
Bugs, Exploits Dog XP SP2 (E-Week.com)
Microsoft Corp. has issued a hotfix for Windows XP Service Pack 2 to solve a problem about which many users have complained: programs that attempt to connect to loopback addresses other than 127.0.0.1 get error messages.
The problem—one of several that have appeared in the newly released SP 2—has been reported by many VPN users since Microsoft introduced the second release candidate in June. However, since it is a hotfix, it is not fully supported. It is expected that Microsoft will issue a more permanent fix in the future.
Meanwhile, security researchers are reporting a new vulnerability in SP2 that could allow a malicious Web site to deposit an attack program on a user’s system.
The attack utilizes Internet Explorer’s drag-and-drop features and the Windows “shell folders” to copy an executable from a malicious Web site to a user’s startup folder, from which it would execute the next time the user logged on. The researcher who reported the problem to security mailing lists provided proof-of-concept code that leaves a file named “malware.exe” in the user’s startup folder.
Umm: Not good.
It’s been axiomatic for years that Microsoft has to issue patches for their patches.
Word to the Wise:
NEVER be the ‘first on your block’ to load-up anything by Microsoft.