CTF Blog

Microsoft will release four important security patches for its Windows, Exchange and SQL products next Tuesday.

Microsoft will release four security patches for its Windows, Exchange and SQL products next Tuesday, all rated “important.”

The Exchange and SQL flaws are “Elevation of Privilege” bugs, meaning that an attacker could theoretically exploit them to get administrative access to a PC. One of the Windows flaws is labeled a “spoofing” bug, meaning that it could help hackers trick the user into doing things like visiting malicious Web sites.

The fourth update fixes a Windows flaw that could allow an attacker to run unauthorized code on a victim’s PC, Microsoft said. Normally, this type of flaw is rated “critical” by Microsoft, but in this case the bug was probably given a less-severe rating because it doesn’t work without the user first taking some extra actions or adding special software or drivers, said Eric Schultze, chief technology officer at Shavlik Technologies.

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Forget about Opera 9.5, Opera 9.51 Final is now available for download. At the start of July, Opera dropped Release Candidate 3 for Opera 9.5 and indicated that it was moving to the RC4 development milestone ahead of finalizing the first update for version 9.5. As of Build RC3, Opera had introduced tweaks to the browser’s installer and to the mechanism which permits users to save everything from websites to images, revealed Claudio Santambrogio, QA Desktop Test Manager. In the end, Opera 9.51 is designed to deal with the plethora of issues that have plagued version 9.5 since its initial release on June 12, 2008.

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Even though Microsoft is yet to officially breathe a single word on the matter, the virtualization capabilities of Windows 7 will also evolve in comparison to what is offered with Windows Vista today. Vista was the Redmond giant’s first client for which virtualization was introduced into the End User License Agreement, and Windows 7 will take it one step further. The next iteration of the Windows client will feature a solution designed to permit end users to access remotely virtualized operating systems running on top of a hypervisor.

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Microsoft is stepping up its game when it comes down to Internet Explorer 8, signaling that the release of the next development milestone of the browser is getting closer and closer. IE8 Beta 2 will be made available next month, in August 2008, with the build advertised as a consumer-oriented release. While Beta 1 dropped in March 2008 was focused on web content developers and designers, Beta 2 will deliver goodies for end users, or at least this is the promise from Microsoft.

In this context, one thing that the IE team had been hard at work was hammering away at IE8 in order to bulletproof the browser as much as possible. Starting with Beta 2, Internet Explorer 8 will deliver a plethora of security features and improvements designed to mark the evolution from IE7 in terms of user protection. The Redmond giant has effectively classified threats into three categories, namely Web Application Vulnerabilities, Browser & Add-on Vulnerabilities, and Social Engineering Threats and, consequently, added extra mitigations to IE8.

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Now that Firefox 3.0 is finalized, made available to the general public since June 17, and already in the history books, with over 8 million downloads in the first 24 hours, Mozilla is focusing on the next iteration of its open source browser. Very early versions of Firefox 3.1 codenamed Shiretoko have already been released to testers, and the first fully fledged Alpha version is already cooking in Mozilla’s open source ovens. But at the current development pace, the release of Firefox 3.1 could very well slip into early 2009.

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Even with the latest service pack releases for the two supported Windows clients, rival operating systems Linux and Mac OS X are still eating away at the install base of Microsoft’s proprietary operating system. Concomitantly with the retirement of Bill Gates from his day to day role with the Redmond company, Windows has passes the 1 billion milestone in terms of its global audience. And while Microsoft is indeed gunning for the next five billion users, the fact of the matter is that the share of its client is going down month after month for the benefit of Mac OS X and Linux.

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With Service Pack 1, Microsoft provided fixes for the vast majority of the issues that have now became associated by default with Windows Vista RTM. But softening the rough edges of Vista is not enough, as there are scenarios in which the problems reported by end users cannot be blamed specifically on the latest Windows client. Case in point: the failure of the Vista Network Map to identify correctly and display computers running Windows XP throughout a network. Vista’s Network Map feature is based on the operating system’s capabilities to effectively build a diagram of all the computers and devices on a network, but leaving XP machines out was not part of the original plan, a situation which has been rectified with the release of Service Pack 3.

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It’s official: On June 30, Windows XP enjoyed its last day as a readily available consumer operating system. Henceforth, it will be available only under a few marginal circumstances.  People who already own XP-powered PCs will continue to receive official Microsoft support until 2014 (if their computers last that long), but the rest of us have seen our Windows options reduced to one: Vista.

Hobbled by slow performance, annoying security features, and wonky support for many existing devices, Vista has earned its bad reputation. But now that it’s the only game in town for mainstream PC users, you might as well make the best of it.

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Firefox 3.0 will end up completely taking Firefox 2.0 out of the equation because it is simply the natural order of things. As Mozilla’s open source browser evolves, users will keep up to date and will upgrade to the latest edition. However, the migration process, as a general rule, takes time and the swap of Firefox 2.0 for Firefox 3.0 will make no exception to this rule. In this context, Mozilla is prepared to act as a catalyst and smooth out the transition by pushing a major update down the throats of Firefox users. According to Mike Beltzner, User Experience Lead, Firefox 3.0.1 could be the browser to signal the beginning of the end for Firefox 2.0.

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Since Bill Gates has officially finished his transition out of the day-to-day role as Microsoft Chairman with the Redmond company, he won’t be around full time when Windows 7 comes out, but this aspect has failed to stop him from revealing that the Windows team is doing amazing things with the successor of Windows Vista. Earlier this year, Gates indicated that Windows 7 would drop in 2009, a date confirmed somewhat by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, this even though the software giant’s official position is still pointing to 2010, three years after the general availability of Windows Vista.

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Like it or not, this is the right time not only to upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 but also to tell hasta la vista to Windows XP. Even though Service Pack 3 for XP has only been available for a few months, almost two in fact, today, June 30, 2008, is the last day when Microsoft will allow retailers and OEMs to sell the operating system. Vista’s successor will continue to be available via System builders until January 31, 2009, with the Home Edition of the client available to OEMs for preinstalling on ultra-

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Bill Gates has officially stepped into the next phase of his life, one dedicated almost exclusively to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. After doing the same job for over 30 years, Gates admitted that the new direction would not be easy; however, he stated that he is ready for the change. Microsoft’s co-founder and now part-time Chairman also added that moving on and focusing on philanthropy does not mean that he will lose his edge, and promised that he would continue to be “pretty hardcore”.

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Opera 9.5 was released on June 12, 2008, sporting boosted performance, a brand new graphical user interface, an overhauled address bar, as well as bookmarks, Speed Dial, and Notes synchronization capabilities. Sadly, at the same time, Opera 9.5 brought to the table a series of functionality issues, which prompted critics that the browser had been released before it was ready. Opera acknowledged the problems of Build 9.5 RTM and is hard at work on version 9.51 to soften all the rough edges of the initial release.

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Get ready for a unique source of information focused exclusively on the next iteration of the Windows client. Microsoft might be mute on Windows 7 now, under the new transparency policy imposed by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, but the situation will not last. The successor of Windows Vista is right on the verge of getting its own online outlet, namely the Windows 7 blog. It appears that Microsoft is continuing the model of its current Windows client which has enjoyed the benefits delivered via the Windows Vista blog since April 2006.

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June 27, 2008 was a day that made it into history simply because it marked the transition of Bill Gates out of his day-to-day role at Microsoft, a company founded together with Paul Allen in 1975. As of June 28, Microsoft is officially sans Bill Gates, now 52 years old and committed to focusing almost exclusively on philanthropic work via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But at the same time June 28 is synonymous with Microsoft’s debut on a new path, other than the one in Bill Gates’ original vision. A new direction that is designed to take the Redmond software giant into the cloud…

In one of the cafeterias on the iconic Redmond campus Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer along with approximately 1,000 Microsoft employees gathered yesterday morning to say farewell to Gates, a ceremony that reverberated across the world in all the company’s offices. By pure coincidence, Bill Gates’ pseudo-retirement, because he still retains the title of Chairman and will continue as a member on the Board of Directors albeit just once a week, is synchronized with the last days when Windows XP will still be available via the retail and OEM channels.

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