Re: what we REALLY learned from WMF

[James Lay <jlay () slave-tothe-box net>]

On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 23:53:45 +0200
Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org> wrote:

> What we really learn from this all WMF "thingie", is that when
> Microsoft wants to, it can.
>
> Microsoft released the WMF patch ahead of schedule
> ( http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/181 )
>
> Yep, THEY released the PATCH ahead of schedule.
>
> What does that teach us?
>
> There are a few options:
> 1. When Microsoft wants to, it can.
>
> There was obviously pressure with this 0day, still — most damage out 
> there from vulnerabilities is done AFTER Microsoft releases the patch 
> and the vulnerability becomes public.
>
> 2. Microsoft decided to jump through a few QA tests this time, and 
> release a patch.
>
> Why should they be releasing BETA patches?
> If they do, maybe they should release BETA patches more often, let
> those who want to - use them. It can probably also shorten the
> testing period considerably.
> If this patch is not BETA, but things did just /happen/ to progress
> more swiftly.. than maybe we should re-visit option #1 above.
>
> ...
>
> Maybe it’s just that we are used to sluggishness. Perhaps it is time
> we, as users and clients, started DEMANDING of Microsoft to push
> things up a notch.
>
> ...
>
> Put in the necessary resources, and release patches within days of
> first discovery. I’m willing to live with weeks and months in
> comparison to the year+ that we have seen sometimes. Naturally some
> problems take longer to fix, but you get my drift.
>
> It’s just like with false positives… as an industry we are now used
> to them. We don’t treat them as bugs, we treat them as an “acceptable
> level of”, as I heard Aviram mention a few times.
>
> ...
>
> The rest is in my blog entry on the subject:
> http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/182
>
>       Gadi.

I didn't learn anything new...just confirmed what I've thought all
along...MS's Security sucks (who in their RIGHT MIND would have an
image file reader able to execute code???), and that the REAL hero's
are people in the security sector like here that created patches and
did the work that MS should have been able to do with their team of
people. I first started seeing things on wmf on December 29th on
sans.org.  It took MS 8 DAYS to release this patch.  Not acceptable in
my book...

James
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