BREAKING NEWS : Microsoft issues 961509

Microsoft as issued an new security advisory about the possible way someone might be able to take your sensitive information using an invalid digital signature:
[ad#ad2-right-1]

Microsoft is aware that research was published at a security conference proving a successful attack against X.509 digital certificates signed using the MD5 hashing algorithm. This attack method could allow an attacker to generate additional digital certificates with different content that have the same digital signature as an original certificate. The MD5 algorithm had previously shown a vulnerability, but a practical attack had not yet been demonstrated.

[via Windows Technet]

Although Microsoft has stated in the advisory most companies are using the SHA-1 algorithm.  Some are still using the MD5 and should stop using it immediately.   Microsoft says there is none in the wild but you can be bet on it someone will do it sooner or later.  Certificate Authorities should stop using MD5 and go to a much stronger better Algorithm. This is what Microsoft is saying and they aren’t providing much information for the end-user on how to prevent from using MD5 certificates on your system. You can remove the MD5 certificate manually if you are a system administor and want to protect the computers at the office.  Please don’t do this unless you know what your doing, you could very well break your system if you did something like this.

Microsoft issues Vista patches out of Monthly Patch Cycle!

KB957321,KB959108,KB959130


Microsoft issues Out of cycle patch for Vista.   These patches are as Followed:
[ad#ad2-right-1]

Kb957321

An update rollup is available for the Microsoft Windows Imaging Component (WIC) in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008. This update rollup resolves the problems that are documented in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

954708 An update to add support for the serialization of complex Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data types in the Windows Imaging Component

945060 There may be inconsistencies in the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) and Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) values for an image file in Windows Vista and in Windows XP

The Windows Portable Device (WPD) API collects and transfers Software Quality Metrics (SQM) data to Microsoft servers. The SQM data is collected only on an opt-in basis through the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. An update is available that disables the collection and transfer of SQL data to Microsoft servers.

This update affects Windows Vista-based computers, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computers, and Windows Server 2008-based computers that are in the Microsoft Windows Media Player Customer Experience Improvement Program.

On a Windows Vista-based computer or on a Windows Server 2008-based computer, you install a third-party Web browser. You set the third-party Web browser as the default Web browser. Then, you run the Connect to the Internet Wizard. However, if you select the Browse the Internet now option, Windows Internet Explorer starts instead of the third-party Web browser that you set as the default Web browser.


[ad#ad2-right]This seems to be not so important.  All of these are not really security related but it does surprise me that Microsoft wanted to release these out of Cycle.   If your planning on using your Vista laptop during the holidays you might want to update your vista machine before you go.  I don’t think there is going to be any major issues with this but if there is, you can always remove these updates later.