Microsoft urges a long-overdue security upgrade
Microsoft is taking advantage of a light Patch Tuesday to urge that customers upgrade their security keys so they don't wind up having trouble with Outlook, Exchange and other Microsoft applications.
The company says businesses that haven't done so should look for applications that use RSA certificates that are smaller than 1,024 bits because starting next month updated Microsoft applications won't accept them.
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The result will be that certificate authority services won't work, making it impossible for applications to reach other resources that require the certificates, Microsoft says.
Internet Explorer will deny access to Web sites with smaller keys, Outlook 2010 won't encrypt email and Outlook won't be able to connect to Exchange servers, the company says.
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Other platforms affected include Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.
"[T]his could be a serious issue for a lot of companies because when it breaks your software, it breaks it in a big way," says from Paul Henry, a security and forensic analyst at Lumension.
In an advisory, Microsoft says businesses should examine systems and applications "that have been tucked away to collect dust and cobwebs because they 'still work' and have not had any cause for review for some time." Those are the ones most likely to have shorter certificates; most mainstream applications moved to lengthier ones long ago at the urging of security-standards and best-practices bodies.
The upgrade to stronger security settings has been available since August, but next month Microsoft will issue it as part of its Windows Update cycle.
While the upgrade will boost security and avoid a list of problems, it can cause issues, the company says. Things to look out for:
= Error messages when browsing to web sites that have SSL certificates with keys that are less than 1,024 bits;
= Problems enrolling for certificates when a certificate request attempts to utilize a key that is less than 1,024 bits;
= Difficulties creating or consuming email (S/MIME) messages that utilize less than 1;024 bit keys for signatures or encryption;
= Difficulties installing Active X controls that were signed with less than 1,024 bit signatures;
= Difficulties installing applications that were signed with less than 1,024 bit signatures (unless they were signed prior to Jan. 1, 2010, which will not be blocked by default).
Meanwhile, Microsoft advises that next Tuesday it will have just two Patch Tuesday security bulletins for its customers to deal with. Both are ranked Important, a step down from its most serious bulletins, which are marked Critical.
The first bulleting fixes problems with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 Service Pack 1, which makes the platform vulnerable to elevation of privilege attacks. The second affects Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 3 and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 and also addresses elevation of privilege weaknesses.
In a cryptic statement during the launch of Nokia Windows Phone 8 smartphones this week, Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop might have tipped the company's hand about developing tablets.
If the company does make a Windows 8 tablet, it would embrace both the phone and computer versions of Windows 8 and perhaps demonstrate what advantage the common interface might hold for users.
Here's the quote as reported by Fast Company: "We have not announced any plans to introduce a tablet product on Windows or any other platform. But what is quite clear is that the digital experience that people expect today is one that spans multiple different environments: the phone, the tablet, the PC... Certainly, with Nokia's strength in mobility, this is an area we're looking at very closely, and hope to be able to talk more broadly soon about what our perspective is on how to approach that opportunity. It's a real opportunity."
It sounds like a non-denial confirmation that they will build a tablet. If he'd wanted to deny, he would have said, "We're not making a tablet." But he said, "We have not announced any plans to introduce a tablet," which is not only already known, but also doesn't actually answer the question.
Windows 8 App Fest in India
If Windows 8 lacks anything it's apps, and a Microsoft-sponsored App Fest in India this month will try to address that.
The 18-hour event in Bangalore calls for teams of up to four programmers to design and build apps for submission to a Microsoft team for review and possible submission to the Windows store, says as story in The Times of India.
Microsoft lags behind Apple and Android in the sheer number of applications written to the new touch-friendly operating system, so this event and others like it could put the company and Windows 8 itself on better footing.
Microsoft seems to be taking a more conservative approach with apps development for Windows Phone 8, with a preview program for the SDK kit for the phone starting next week that is open only to developers who have already published Windows Phone apps. Everybody else will have to wait until later this year when Microsoft unveils Phone 8.
Symantec offers free Windows 8 security
Symantec is developing three security applications for the Windows 8 platform specifically: one that offers cloud-based security management, a second that white lists safe data and applications and a third that wraps the Internet Explorer 10 browser engine inside a secure casing, according to a story in Computerworld.
The applications are free initially, but later may be restricted to those with Symantec service subscriptions and who own Norton security software, the story says.
In the story Symantec's senior director, product management Gerry Egan doesn't have much good to say about the security improvements in Windows 8 vs Windows 7, something Microsoft has been promoting. He says it is partially true that Windows 8 is more secure, but that under the covers the operating system is a traditional Windows desktop that is vulnerable to the same type of malicious code.
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