Who's behind the GPcode ransomware?   10 Jun 2008 12:52 GMT
In one of these moments when those who are supposed to know, don't know, and those who don't realize what they know aren't reaching the appropriate parties, it's time we get back to the basics - finding out who's behind GPcode, and trying to tip them on the consequences of...
Source: ZDNet

MS08-036 – Important: Vulnerabilities in Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) Could Allow Denial of Service (950762)   10 Jun 2008 08:00 GMT
Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in the Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) protocol that could allow a denial of service if malformed PGM packets are received by an affected system. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause a user’s system to become non-responsive and to require a restart to restore functionality. Note that the denial of service vulnerability would not allow an attacker to execute code or to elevate their user rights, but it could cause the affected system to stop accepting requests.
Source: TechNet

MS08-035 – Important: Vulnerability in Active Directory Could Allow Denial of Service (953235)   10 Jun 2008 08:00 GMT
Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in implementations of Active Directory on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008; Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) when installed on Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003; and Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service (AD LDS) when installed on Windows Server 2008. The vulnerability could be exploited to allow an attacker to cause a denial of service condition. On Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008, an attacker must have valid logon credentials to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause the system to stop responding or automatically restart.
Source: TechNet

MS08-034 – Important: Vulnerability in WINS Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (948745)   10 Jun 2008 08:00 GMT
Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) that could allow elevation of privilege. A local attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts.
Source: TechNet

MS08-033 – Critical: Vulnerabilities in DirectX Could Allow Remote Code Execution (951698)   10 Jun 2008 08:00 GMT
Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft DirectX that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted media file. An attacker who successfully exploited either of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
Source: TechNet

MS08-032 - Moderate: Cumulative Security Update of ActiveX Kill Bits (950760)   10 Jun 2008 08:00 GMT
Bulletin Severity Rating:Moderate - This security update resolves a publicly reported vulnerability for the Microsoft Speech API. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer and has the Speech Recognition feature in Windows enabled. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. This update also includes a kill bit for software produced by BackWeb.
Source: TechNet

MS08-031 - Critical: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (950759)   10 Jun 2008 08:00 GMT
Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves one privately reported and one publicly disclosed vulnerability. The privately reported vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. The publicly disclosed vulnerability could allow information disclosure if a user viewed a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer.
Source: TechNet

MS08-030 – Critical: Vulnerability in Bluetooth Stack Could Allow Remote Code Execution (951376)   10 Jun 2008 08:00 GMT
Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Bluetooth stack in Windows that could allow remote code execution. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.
Source: TechNet

Breaking the dialogues of the deaf   10 Jun 2008 07:15 GMT
How do you talk to people who just don't want to hear it? Every time I get into a conversation comparing Windows to any Unix option I discover the same thing: the people who will listen to rational argument already know the right answers,...
Source: ZDNet

TSA is failing us, let my associated ranting begin thusly   10 Jun 2008 04:58 GMT
I want to start out by saying that I take great personal risk of getting black listed before my flight to K.C. tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd talk about an article by Rafal Los on how the TSA is failing us again.  This actually reminds me of an older article that...
Source: ZDNet