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Whatacrock
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Botched KB3033929 Update Pushes Windows 7 PCs into Infinite

Post by Whatacrock »

Botched KB3033929 Update Pushes Windows 7 PCs into Infinite Reboot Loop



Microsoft shipped a broken update on Patch Tuesday
The issue only seems to be affecting Windows 7
Microsoft rolled out a total of 14 security updates on Patch Tuesday, but it turns out that at least one of them is causing trouble on a number of Windows 7 computers.

KB3033929, which is described as a patch that improves support for SHA-2 code signing on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, fails to install and causes computers running these two operating systems to enter an infinite reboot loop that needs to be manually interrupted by users.

Details are very scarce right now, but a number of posts on Microsoft's support forums seem to confirm that there's indeed an issue when trying to validate the integrity of the update, so installation fails, the computer is rebooted and installation is restarted.
Just hide the update for now

In case your computer is experiencing the same issue, hiding the update completely should temporarily address the problem until Microsoft comes up with a fix.

Here's what one of the affected users is saying on Microsoft's support forums:

“I'm having problems with the KB3033929 update from the latest run of Tuesday patches. After installation the PC reboots, but during the boot up configuration of the patch it fails and Windows starts reverting the configuration and reboots. And then it starts all over again a couple of times until it eventually boot into Windows.”

Microsoft is yet to provide more information on what exactly is causing the problem, but users who want to hide the update need to go over to Control Panel, click on Programs and Features, View installed updates, look for KB3033929, right-click it and hit the “Hide this update” option.

We've reached out to Microsoft for more details on this new botched bulletin, but expect the company to pull the bulletin in case it discovers that more computers are affected.


http://news.softpedia.com/news/Botched- ... 5631.shtml
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Re: Botched KB3033929 Update Pushes Windows 7 PCs into Infin

Post by parkd1 »

So far no problems for me on this one so it may just be some computers. Hope Microsoft call tell us why it does not work on some computers and push out a fix.
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Re: Botched KB3033929 Update Pushes Windows 7 PCs into Infin

Post by Whatacrock »

Never had any issues here with the botched updates, touch wood, since information is so vague regarding the issues makes it hard to determine what the issue is..

Good luck with information from Microsoft, their reasons for these botched updates remains within the Corporation, don't want the General Public to know....
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Re: Botched KB3033929 Update Pushes Windows 7 PCs into Infin

Post by DesertJerry »

KB3033929 x64 installed here on 10 March with no problems; so far.
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Microsoft EMET blocks 'VBScript God Mode'

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Microsoft has updated its exploit blocker Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) to version 5.2 with some welcome tweaks and enhancements.

The Attack Surface Reduction mitigation has been extended to stop processes running malicious scripts via IE’s script engine. That’s good news as it’s a particularly powerful hack, and the basic "VBScript God Mode" idea has been around for quite some time.

EMET now fully supports alerting and reporting (Event logs, system tray icon) from Modern Internet Explorer, and desktop IE with Enhanced Protected Mode enabled. We’re surprised it’s taken so long, but the delay has only been in reporting: the core protection technologies have always worked just fine.

The latest EMET also employs a brand new protection technique called Control Flow Guard (CFG), which detects and blocks attempts to hijack its code.

CFG is only useful when running on a "CFG-Aware" version of Windows -- which, right now, means Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 Technical Preview -- but the program will still run correctly on Windows 7 or later.

Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit 5.2 is available for download now.

http://betanews.com/2015/03/13/microsof ... -god-mode/
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Re: Microsoft EMET blocks 'VBScript God Mode'

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Just goes to show how much information Microsoft releases to the public !!
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Microsoft to ditch Internet Explorer

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Microsoft to ditch Internet Explorer

After being blighted by security concerns, sluggish performance and frustrated users, Microsoft has unveiled plans to ditch the Internet Explorer brand.

Under the codename Project Spartan, the tech company is launching a complete overhaul of its web browser - and hopes a faster, sleeker alternative will encourage users to download it on their PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Internet Explorer was an essential tool for getting online in the 1990s, but in the face of strong competition from Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, the software has been lambasted by some critics as being 'only good for downloading other web browsers'.

Despite Microsoft creating tongue-in-cheek adverts where it concedes IE is the browser that 'everyone loves to hate', it has been unable to shake off the negative image associated with the brand.

Chris Capossela, the company's marketing chief, has confirmed the browser will be rebranded when Windows 10 launches later this year - but its name is yet to be announced.

Although far from well liked, Internet Explorer is definitely well known.

At one point, its market share of online users was believed to be in excess of 90%, partly because of how the browser was pre-installed on Windows operating systems.

In 2013, Microsoft was fined $730m (495m) by EU regulators because Windows users had not been given the chance to choose a different browser - leading the company to fall foul of competition rules.

http://www.skynews.com.au/business/tech ... rer_190315
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Microsoft Moves to Kill Flash, Offers Option to Disable It

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Microsoft Moves to Kill Flash, Offers Option to Disable It in Windows 10

The world is joining forces against Flash Player, and while some are looking into ways to keep loading Flash content without Adobe's software, others are trying to move away from it completely and switch to alternative solutions.

Microsoft is the latest big tech company that's making a step towards a world without Flash Player, as the new Spartan browser, which will debut in Windows 10 as the default browser, will come with options to disable it completely with the press of a button.

Right now, Flash Player is bundled into Internet Explorer, so Microsoft is working with Adobe to update its software through Windows Update every Patch Tuesday. This way, Redmond makes sure that all Windows computers are getting the update for Internet Explorer 11, but also that the very latest vulnerabilities are being patched on time.

In Spartan, however, Microsoft is finally giving users options to disable it, thus making HTML5 the default option on websites where it exists. YouTube, for instance, is already using HTML5 as the default mode for viewing videos, so Spartan users shouldn't feel any difference when accessing Google's video sharing service.

How to disable it

Often described as very insecure, Flash Player is slowly fading away, and with Windows 10, there's no doubt that many users would simply disable it to make sure that their computers are not vulnerable to attacks due to flaws found in Adobe's software.

To disable it in the existing versions of Spartan, users only need to press the settings button in the right side of the browser screen and scroll down to an option called “Add-ons.” There's a toggle that lets you enable or disable Flash Player, so simply click/tap it to turn it off.

This feature is very likely to make it to the final version of Spartan, as Microsoft isn't willing to expose users' computers with third-party software. Mozilla is also developing its own replacement for Flash Player, Google has already switched YouTube and ads to HTML5, so Microsoft is just another tech giant that's contributing to the death of a very popular (and insecure) piece of software.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsof ... 7143.shtml
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More than Half of the Planet Powered by Windows 7

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More than Half of the Planet Powered by Windows 7, While Windows 8 Collapses - StatCounter

Microsoft is working at full speed to bring the brand new Windows 10 to the market as soon as possible, but in the meantime, the company might start thinking about what could easily become a problem in case the upcoming OS doesn't convince everyone to upgrade.

Windows 7's market share is growing at such a fast pace that it's very likely to become the new Windows XP when its support comes to an end in January 2020, with market share data provided by analysis firm StatCounter indicating that its usage continued to grow last month.

March 2015 figures show that Windows 7 was powering a total of 53.44 percent of the computers worldwide, which means that more than 1 in 2 PCs are running this particular OS version.

Fortunately, in addition to Windows 7, Windows 8.1 also improved its market share and is now sitting at 15.41 percent, enough to make it the world's second most popular desktop operating system, according to StatCounter data.

Windows XP lost more users last month, and that's a thing that everyone expected to happen, given the fact that its support ended in April 2014, so the 14-year-old operating system is now installed on only 11.14 percent of computers in the world.
Windows 8 goes down

One the other hand, Windows 8's market share is still going down, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, as this could happen not only because users switch to Windows 7 or a non-Windows OS but also thanks to the fact that more people install Windows 8.1 (which, by the way, is completely free of charge for all Windows 8 devices).

Right now, 3.97 percent of the PCs are running Windows 8, which pushes Microsoft's modern operating system very close to Windows Vista, which now holds a market share of 2.34 percent.

Linux has pretty much the same market share as before, with 1.81 percent of the desktop PCs now said to be powered by the open-source platform.

We're now awaiting OS market share figures from Net Applications, another third-party market analysis firm that also provides information on how many PCs worldwide are running a certain version of Windows.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/More-tha ... 7255.shtml
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Want to Make Windows as Secure as Linux? Remove Admin Rights

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Want to Make Windows as Secure as Linux? Remove Admin Rights

A security report published this week by British firm Avecto reveals that no less than 97 percent of the 240 vulnerabilities found (and fixed) by Microsoft in 2014 could be exploited with administrator rights, so the first suggestion that comes to everyone's mind is to switch to a standard user account to be fully protected.

While this isn't quite the best choice for many tech-savvy users out there, Avecto says that its statistics show that, in the case of Windows critical vulnerabilities, no less than 98 percent of them could be exploited with admin rights.

In other words, only 2 percent of them rely on a different exploit method, so the possibility of getting your computer hacked drops significantly in the case of a standard user account.

The percentage is even bigger as far as Internet Explorer is concerned, with 99.5 percent of the flaws said to require administrator privileges, whereas for Microsoft Office, only 95 percent of them required special rights.
More than 250 remote code execution flaws

Statistics show that, in Microsoft's case, remote code execution is biggest concern for users, as it would allow cybercriminals to drop malicious files on users' computers and thus attempt to get full control. In this case, administrator rights would be needed, and Avecto says that more than 90 percent of them can be blocked by simply switching to a standard user account.

“These statistics serve as another reminder as to the importance of removing user admin rights in an enterprise setting. Analysts and respected industry bodies including SANS, The Council on Cyber Security and the Australian Department of Defense all list the controlled use of administrative privileges as a fundamental part of their security best practice guidelines,” Avecto said.

Locking down Windows and turning to a standard account would indeed be a good way to prevent successful exploits of security vulnerabilities, but Microsoft's OS still lacks a more advanced system that would allow users to provide an admin password for certain tasks.

For instance, on Linux, users are prompted to provide the root password whenever they attempt to install software or updates, whereas on Windows, standard users have to log out completely and switch to an account with administrator rights to perform the same tasks.

There are ways to do this without logging out, but they require additional tweaking, which beginners might find too hard to embrace, so Microsoft should have a look at this functionality too for Windows 10.

A standard user account would block 98 percent of Windows flaws

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Want-to- ... 7381.shtml
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