Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Warm up your Systems Management Server or Software Update Server.  We’ve released a patch outside of the normal "once-a-month, every-second-Tuesday" cycle. 

MS06-055 addresses a vulnerability in Vector Markup Language rendering, a component of Windows, and has a maximum severity rating of Critical. The update addresses a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take complete control of a system remotely. 

WHY?
We’ve discovered a public attack using the vulnerability that the patch fixes and the testing we normally do completed early.  Right now we’re monitoring the movement of the attack and it’s spread has been pretty limited.  That being said, we’re encouraging everyone – Enterprise & Consumer to patch their systems.  Folks using Automatic Update should get patched tonight or whenever Automatic Update is set on their computers to do a Critical Update check.

Note that if you’re one of the smart folks that have the Windows XP firewall enabled on their workstations, you more than likely don’t have to worry about any existing exploitation through this vulnerability.  The firewall will normally block any sort of intrusion posed by threats leveraging the vulnerability patched by MS06-055.

MS06-055 WEBCAST
Microsoft will hold a special live webcast on September 27, 2006 to provide technical details on the MS06-055 out of band release and to answer questions. Customers can sign up for the Web cast here.  Other webcasts for vulnerabilities patched monthly can be found here:  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security.

Microsoft will also be releasing additional security updates on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 as part of its regularly scheduled release of security updates. Customers can find out more information about that release at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/advance.mspx.

UPDATE:  (9/25/2006 11:11AM)
Ziff Davis posted a list of things that folks have noticed have changed through either TAP communications or just plain observation.  http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=11

ORIGINAL POST:
We released Windows Vista Build 5728.16387 the other day. 

Please note that this is what we call a "Test" build.  Without going into the nitty gritty of what a test build  is relative to all the other types of builds we have, know that a "Test" build can often break other features that used to work in previous regression tested builds like those released as "official release candidates".  Test builds exist to test the inclusion of certain key fixes or patches made to the product.

Additionally, upgrades from one build to this build are not supported.  Nor will upgrades from this test build.  Doesn’t sound too good, ‘eh?

So for those of you running Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 Build 5600, you may not need or want to upgrade to this build.  RC1 is pretty stable as it is and this new release (called the EDW build) was created just to fix certain key issues. 

I frankly don’t know all of what was fixed because no list was created, nor will one be.  The release was specifically designed to include fixes specifically for the specific customers that are engaged in formalized "adoption programs" with us.

I believe two of the things that are supposed to be fixed are:

1. Compatibility with Virtual PC
2. Inconsistencies in the behavior of User Access Control.

LINK:  Download Windows Vista Build 5728

If you own a Xbox360, you’ve probably at least heard something about "3 Red LEDs" appearing the the ring of light – the lights that shine around the power button.

I have probably 4 or 5 dozen Enterprise customers that own XBox360’s now.  I’ve encounter this incident happening to 2 people now and suffice it to say that I’ve done a lot internal research on the topic.

WHAT IS IT?
"3 Red LEDs" means that the Xbox360 has encountered an system error – no big surprise there, ‘eh?    Without getting into details, this indicator is very generic:  It could mean any number of things.  A hardware problem… a software problem… a specific component… more than several hundred different conditions.    I think it’s the equivalent of a Windows "blue screen of death" to some degree – except that you don’t get a 0x235A456B error code on your screen.

WHY AM I BRINGING THIS UP?
This morning we had a surge of sorts – I think they call them "brown outs".  It was silent and frankly I wouldn’t have even noticed had it not been for the fact that my big screen TV’s picture "disappeared" and showed nothing but "blackness" in the middle of the Michigan vs Wisconsin NCAA Football game. 

This TV was an EXTREMELY expensive buy for me and even with the discounts I’d procured through a customer-relationship I once had, the thing still cost more than anything I’ve seen recently in your local Costco or BestBuy, so needless to say, I was petrified for a moment.  I don’t have it on any warranty (it expired) so I was frantically looking around for the controller to see what would happen if I switched the component input to my Xbox360.  Then I noticed it.

My Xbox360 has "3 Red LEDs".  The same ones that I’d heard of before.  AIGH!

WHAT TO DO?
Now the "book" (i.e. our support site) says that I should try the following procedures:

• Turn off the console, unplug everything, reconnect everything, and turn the console back on.
• Turn off the console, remove the hard drive, and turn the console back on again.
• If all else fails, visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/contact/ for information on how to contact Xbox360 Support.  (1-800-4MY-XBOX or 425-635-7180, 6AM-10PM PST)

So guess what?  I did exactly what was described in step 1.  I turned everything off… disconnected everything, and turned it all back on. 

BAM!  The sucker turned on… controllers connected… XboxLive autologged in… BRIGHT GREEN, baby! (Oh by the way, the TV worked too)  It looks like that during a brown out, there’s a chance that your system will freak temporarily, however if you have a good surge protector (not a UPS mind you – a SURGE PROTECTOR… more on that in a second) the disruption in power won’t damage your XBox360, but rather just make it go "red" for a little bit.  I was fortunate to have a TrippLite Surge Protector protecting my whole multimedia system.  (This isn’t a plug for Tripplite… it’s just what I had.)  The surge protector clearly helped protect my TV & my XBox360.

So what’s this about UPSs?  I’ve HEARD that UPS’s are not recommended for use with Xbox360s.  Don’t ask me why.  This is just what I heard.  Even though the whole mission of a UPS’s life is to provide consistent filtered power to a device, I’ve heard that they’re not recommended for some reason.

So the moral of the story is, just because you have the "3 Red LEDs" doesn’t mean you’re hosed.  It might just mean a temporary condition so follow the instructions in the support article, and you may come out clean.

Do you have an AA powered Bluetooth headset for your Windows Mobile Phone?  Maybe a Microsoft Wireless Laptop Mouse that uses a AA?  Maybe an Windows Media Plays-for-sure Media Player that requires a AA battery?  Or maybe you use AA batteries for your XBox360 wireless controllers?

Now you can purchase NiMH AA batteries that are not just rechargable – they’re rechargable using the USB port on your computer or XBox360 console. 

Fear not for those of you looking for even smaller batteries – they’re also working on a MiniUSB connectable AAA-battery as well as a 9-volt.

http://www.usbcell.com/product/1