Re: Microsoft security update broken?
Hi
Maybe it has someting to do with M$ having ended support of Win98 as of
30th June 2003, or have people detected the same problem with other Win
OS's?
I say this quoting a previous bugtraq message from Andreas Marx dated
5th Sept. 2003:
"Hi!
I was just wondering what has happened with MS03-034, because Windows 98
was not listed as platform anymore (in the section "Platforms not
affected"), only Windows Me. This usually means, that this platform is
not supported any longer and no further patches will be provided
anymore. I contacted Microsoft and they told me, that this is the case
with Windows 98/98 SE:
THERE WILL BE NO MORE (FREE) SECURITY UPDATES FOR THIS PLATFORM (WIN
98). PERIOD.
According to their lifecycle policy
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;[ln];lifeprodw) the
free-of-charge support period has ended 30-Jun-2003. But I always
thought that they will still be releasing security updates until the
end-of-life-period, which is, according to the above website, 16-Jan-2004.
However, I was wrong. So, if you're still using Windows 98/98 SE you
should switch to an other OS very soon. I'm sure that new security
vulnerabilities will be discovered on this platform and due to the fact,
that there will be no more security updates, the use of Windows 98 will
get more and more risky every day. Virus authors will adopt these
security vulnerabilities soon to get their nasty malwares spreading
faster than ever. And without a proper fix from MS, you will run into
big trouble.
If a Blaster-like worm will be released that affected Win 9x platforms,
you won't be able to use your computer anymore, because there will be no
fix for it. No av program would help you much, because they can only
stop dropped files, but not the exploit itself. You have lost. You will
need to switch to a more recent OS. And you have to pay for it...
cheers,
Andreas Marx
Head of the Anti-Virus Test Center at the University of Magdeburg, Germany
--
Andreas Marx <amarx@xxxxxxxxxx>, http://www.av-test.org
GEGA IT-Solutions GbR, Klewitzstr. 7, 39112 Magdeburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)391 6075466, Fax: +49 (0)391 6075469"
Bears thinking about maybe...
Andrew
--
**********************************
Andrew Entwistle
Systems Administrator
Department of Genetic Epidemiology
Georg-August-University Goettingen
Humboldtallee 32
37073 Goettingen
Germany
Tel: +49 551 39-14236
**********************************