Microsoft has pulled four bulletins from its announced list of Patch Tuesday fixes, but did not specify why it was backpedaling on the security releases.
It now plans to issue four security bulletins on Tuesday, rather than the eight originally announced, the software giant said Friday in an updated notice on its Web site.
During the final week of December a vulnerability was discovered in Windows platforms that affects the Client Server Run-Time Subsystem (CSRSS) service. The theory behind the discovery was that it might allow someone to execute arbitrary code on affected systems, which include Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows Vista.
If there's one thing that Aaron Kornblum would like to quash, it's the botnet armies. These are the remote-controlled PCs that have been taken over without their user's knowledge. Symantec counted more than 4.5 million of them during the first six months of the year, and according to Kornblum, they are the backbone of today's cybercrime.
U.S. software giant Microsoft is dealing with a spate of claims from the public about security flaws in its new Vista operating system.
Security experts and self-professed hackers have announced a number of apparent vulnerabilities that could result in a user's computer becoming infected while surfing the Web.
Microsoft said it was monitoring the situation and had not seen any indication of security breaches involving the highly touted Vista system.
Microsoft has finally released draft APIs to security application developers which had earlier criticized the company of partiality.
Considering, Microsoft itself now develop security products for their own operating systems, companies like Symantec and McAfee complained that they were not being provided enough technology to develop quality products for the Vista operating system.
Microsoft has released a first draft of programming interfaces meant to help security firms create products that work with kernel protection features in Windows Vista.
The new application programming interfaces, or APIs, will let software makers extend the functionality of the Windows kernel in 64-bit versions of Vista, Microsoft said on its Web site Tuesday. Security companies, including market leaders Symantec and McAfee, had complained that Microsoft locked them out of the kernel, a core part of Windows.
Vulnerability marketplace sparks hike in critical Microsoft flaws.
Microsoft patched 133 'critical' or 'important' vulnerabilities in 2006, more than doubling the number from 2005, according to data collected by security vendor McAfee.
Microsoft has issued an update to Windows Vista that's intended to stop a piracy monster.
The software maker said on Thursday that the update is aimed at thwarting a technique that was letting some people use pirated versions of the operating system without going through the software's built-in product activation. Microsoft has dubbed the approach "frankenbuild" because it works by combining test versions of Vista with the final code to create a hybrid version.
Windows development chief James Allchin has said he was being "purposefully dramatic" in an email to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in which he said he would buy an Apple Mac if he wasn't a Microsoft employee.
The email, sent in 2003, outlined how development on the new Windows Vista operating system had gone astray and emerged this week at an Iowa anti-trust trial against Microsoft.
Microsoft Corp. put out three software patches Tuesday that fix problems carrying a "critical" rating, the company's highest threat level.
All three could let an attacker remotely run code on a victim's computer. The patches close holes in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, its Windows Media Player program and its Visual Studio 2005 development software.
Four other patches, for vulnerabilities deemed "important," also were released for Windows and its Outlook Express e-mail program.
