Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

It was announced today that there was a major DNS security flaw that could allow attackers easily to compromise any name server; it also affects clients.

Here are some specific news articles about this (for techies only)

• Slashdot
• Internet Systems Consortium
• Internet Storm Centre
• Microsoft Security bulletin

What does this mean for you?

Patch your Windows XP PC using Microsoft Update or Windows Update. If you have a MAC use Software Update to patch it. I am not sure if they have released patches yet for MAC but will update this when I find out.

I have full instructions and screenshots for Windows XP and Vista below – also a couple of screenshots for Server 2003 / SBS 2003, though server owners SHOULD know how and when to patch their servers.

Note Microsoft indicates that this is not a problem for Vista Machines – they are already secure from this vulnerability – another reason why Vista is better than XP.  However I would recommend running updates anyway just incase there are related vulnerabilities discovered and patched by Microsoft.

Windows XP

Click Start, Programs and Microsoft Update (Or windows Update if Microsoft Update is not showing.

Once Microsoft update has opened click Custom.

Microsoft Update will go and check for patches. This may take several minutes depending on your speed of Internet connection. No personally identifiable information is ever transferred to Microsoft servers during this process. However you will nee to be running a legitimate version of Windows XP.

You may be asked to download and install a genuine validation tool that will check your licence key is valid and genuine.

Click Continue when this completes

After this runs you will be presented with a list of available patches.

Click the link to Review and install updates.

Click the Install Updates button.

Accept any Licence Terms required.

After they have been downloaded and Installed you will probably be asked to restart your PC.

I suggest you run this process every day for the next few days to ensure all patches that relate to this problem that are released are applied to your PC.

Vista

Click Start and Programs and Windows Update. You can also find this in the Control Panel. Click Check for Updates on the left hand side.

Click Install Updates once the PC has determined what needs to be installed.

Accept the licence agreements if they show.

You may need to restart your PC to complete the installation.

Check this every day for the next week or so just to make sure all patches related to this issue are downloaded and installed.

SBS2003

You should be managing your server actively already. However if not then make sure you run the Windows or Microsoft Update and at the very least run the high Priority Updates.