Microsoft's glasnost on interoperability means more bugs, more exploits

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's decision last week to let everyone snoop through its software
| secrets means vulnerabilities and exploits will almost certainly climb in the
| short term, security researchers said today.
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http://www.computerworld.com/action/...icleId=9064500

It might get harder for the monopolist to fool everyone by patching secretly
for dishonest vanity purposes (links below), if patch things _at all_ (or find
flaws).


Related:

Vista SP1 will contain undocumented fixes

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| Interesting email in today mailbag: Â*“Will SP1 contain undisclosed or
| undocumented security fixes?�
|
| For some people, counting the number of security flaws that one OS has
| compared to another is important because it offers a metric upon which to Â*
| determine which OS is the most secure (personally, I feel that it’s a bogus
| metric, but I’ll let it slide for now). Â*However, many claim that Microsoft
| stacks the deck in its favor by not disclosing a full list of vulnerabilities
| that have been patched by omitting to include those discovered and patched
| in-house. Â* Â* Â*
`----

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1225


Critical Vulnerability in Microsoft Metrics

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| This is a small subset of all the vulnerabilities, because the
| vulnerabilities that are found through the QA process and the vulnerabilities
| that are found by the security folks they engage as contractors to perform
| penetration testing are fixed in service packs and major updates. For
| Microsoft this makes sense because these fixes get the benefit of a full test
| pass which is much more robust for a service pack or major release than it is
| for a security update. Â* Â* Â*
`----

http://blog.mozilla.com/security/200...osoft-metrics/


http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowa...00/PX03096.pdf


Skeletons in Microsoft’s Patch Day closet

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| This is the first time I’ve seen Microsoft prominently admit to silently
| fixing vulnerabilities in its bulletins — a controversial practice that
| effectively reduces the number of publicly documented bug fixes (for those
| keeping count) and affects patch management/deployment decisions. Â*
`----

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=316


Beware of undisclosed Microsoft patches

,----[ Quote ]
| Forget for a moment whether Microsoft is throwing off patch counts
| that Microsoft brass use to compare its security record with those
| of its competitors. What do you think of Redmond’s silent patching
| practice?
`----

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=527


Microsoft is Counting Bugs Again

,----[ Quote ]
| Sorry, but Microsoft's self-evaluating security counting isn't really a
| good accounting.
|
| [...]
|
| The point: Don't count on security flaw counting. The real flaw is
| the counting.
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http://www.microsoft-watch.com/conte...129TX1K0000535