Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 23:53:45 +0200
From: Gadi Evron <ge@linuxbox.org.>
To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com
Subject: what we REALLY learned from WMF
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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.
