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Jump to the BugBlog archives (October 03 and earlier are public archives)

Cleveland-area blogs*:

Backup BugBlog

Economic Development Futures

Brewed Fresh Daily

Cleve-blog

Working with Words

Gassho

Sardonic Views

Filtering Craig

Hotel Bruce

Blogcritics.org

Up Yours

Kevin Holtsberry

Steve Goldberg

Red Wheelbarrow

Anita Campbell

Swerb's Blurbs

Rachel's Law

*there are more blogs in Cleveland, these are just from people I've met or know. Some of the above are actually farther away, but are bloggers I've met here.

Subscription portion of the BugBlog. The first bug of the day listed is always the free bug available to non-subscribers, followed by the subscription-only bugs.

4/30/2004 You Can Be Too Thin, if You're An Apple PowerBook

Apple says that because of the slim profile of their PowerBook laptops, sometimes when you fold down the screen it will touch the edge of the keycaps. This may result in small vertical marks on the display. The marks aren't permanent. They say you can get rid of them by "gently wiping off the display with a clean cloth." (Good thing they warned about gentle - someone may have used their power washer.) Keeping the keypad free of greasy fingermarks may also help.

Apple updated their iPod software on 4/28/2004. This update is needed for compatibility with the new iTunes 4.5 (released on the same date) and iTunes Music store. It is also supposed to give better playback performance. If you use it with a Dock connector, it will also support the Apple Lossless Encoder. Get the update at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ipodupdate.html.

Cisco has updated their two bulletins tracking vulnerabilities due to the TCP bug. Both were updated 4/30, and are in their fifth revision. The one for IOS based products is at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040420-tcp-ios.shtml, and the non-IOS bulletin is at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040420-tcp-nonios.shtml.

Corel says that they made no changes to the file formats in Corel WordPerfect 12. (They probably couldn't afford to do it.) Therefore, there should be no compatibility problems with your files if you upgrade. In fact, they say that the WordPerfect file format hasn't changed since version 6.1.

If you remove an earlier version of Corel WordPerfect Office, after upgrading to WordPefect Office 12, you may see this error message when you try to start Corel Presentations:
windows registration database is missing or incorrect.
Corel says you will have to do a repair installation of WordPerfect Office 12 to fix this.

If you start up Corel WordPerfect Office 12, you may see this error message:
Entrust initialization file not found: c:\<windows>\Entrust.ini. Entrust Integration should be installed only when an Entrust Server is being used.
This probably means the Entrust component got installed when it wasn't needed. Corel says to go to the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs applet, and uninstall Entrust.

Corel says that while you can open Microsoft Word documents in WordPerfect Office 12, without having many compatibility worries, you won't be able to use MS Word macros in WordPerfect. If you import a Word doc into WordPerfect, and it contains macros, here is how to get rid of it. In WordPerfect, go to View, Reveal Codes. You should see the Microsoft macro inserted as a hyperlink. Drag that hyperlink tag out of the Reveal Codes window -- that will delete the macro.

4/29/2004 Extra -- MS04-011 Security Patch May Disable Some Win 2000 Computers

While everyone (including me) has been saying that it is critical to install the patch from Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011, in at least some cases this patch will disable your computer. This happens on all versions of Windows 2000 when you are using these drivers: Ipsecw2k.sys; Imcide.sys; Dlttape.sys. Your computer may hang while booting, or you may not be able to log on, or CPU usage may spike at 100 percent. Microsoft says that you may run into this situation when the Nortel Networks VPN client is installed and if the IPSec Policy Agent is set to Manual or Automatic for the startup type. There are probably other situations where this is a problem, too. If you've already applied the patch and have a sick computer, see the workaround information at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;841382.

Microsoft says that as the size of your Media Library increases, the time it takes for Windows Media Player 9 to copy music media files to a portable player may increase exponentially. The problem is that Microsoft designed the player to continually enumerate through the Media Library to support some features. Microsoft has a hotfix that will speed things up. It will be included in an upcoming release, but if you want it sooner you will need to contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 837272. Note that you might get charged for this call. (In that case, you may want to check out iTunes and iPods from Apple.)

4/28/2004 Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Novell fixes

Apple says that if you rename your home directory in Mac OS X 10.3, either accidently or on purpose, then the next time you log in all your home directory contents, preferences and subfolders will be empty. It will appear that you have lost all your data. Cheer up -- because the data isn't lost. It's over in the renamed directory, and Mac OS X has created a new, empty home directory that you see when you log on. If you want to see how to get things back, go to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854. Note that Apple says that it is really not a good idea to rename your home directory.

Apple has updated QuickTime. The new verson 6.3.1 checks in at a hefty 17.4 MB. However, the information on what gets changed in this update is rather thin. All Apple says is it "delivers enhanced support for iTunes and other QuickTime-based applications." Get it at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktimeupdate.html.

Apple says that a missing file is to blame if you try to run the Mac OS X 10.3 Disk Utility and get this error message
"First Aid failed
"Disk Utility stopped repairing permissions on '(volume name)' because the following error was encountered: No valid packages"
The missing file is /Library/Receipts/BaseSystem.pkg. Apple says that if you moved or renamed that file, put it back. If you deleted that file, you shouldn't have done that. You'll need to copying it from a different computer running 10.3, or reinstall Mac OS X 10.3 from an installation disc.

The security people who worry about such things say that the Netsky.Y worm seems to be more active. This one will show up in your inbox with a Subject line that says "Delivery failure notice". It will also have an attachment. Needless to say, you don't want to deal with the attachment. The major AV vendors have this one in their database, so if you have your AV signatures up-to-date, this one won't get through. (Since this one is Netsky.Y, realize there are 24 earlier variations out there, and more to come.)

IBM has released a cumulative fix for WebSphere Portal 5.0.2.1. This patch contains a large number of bug fixes, including some for deadlock issues, for memory leaks, and for XML problems. You can see the full list of fixed bugs, and download the patch, at
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24006865&rs=260.

MandrakeSoft has their version of the 2.6 kernel update. It fixes a number of bugs, including one in the framebuffer driver, one in the ip_setsockopt() function code, and one in the static buffer in 2.4 kernel's panic() function. There's an update for Mandrake Linux 9.1, 9.2, 10.0, the Corporate Server 2.1, and the Multi Network Firewall 8.2.

Computerworld reports that more code is circulating that exploits two of the flaws covered by Microsoft's April security patches. These would include the LSASS bug and the SSL bug. This new information doesn't change the nature of the fix from Microsoft. You should still get the April security patches. This information just points out WHY you want to install the patches. You can get the Microsoft patches at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx. You can read the Computerworld story at http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92696,00.html?nas=PM-92696.

In Microsoft Windows XP, you may keep on seeing a folder named Jgl_Rt in your Recycle Bin. If you try to delete it, you will get an error message saying the folder is in use. This may happen if you have a CD in a CD-ROM or CD-RW drive when your computer boots up. This may happen most often with Plextor Cdwriter drives. If you remove the CD from the drive, the mysterious folder should disappear.

If you use the Microsoft Narrator screen reader on a Microsoft Word 2000 document, you may end up with black bars on the screen. This will happen if: the document has more than one page; it has an AutoShape behind the text; and the zoom factor is 80% or higher. Microsoft has a hotfix for this bug, which will be in a future Word 2000 service pack. If you need the fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the fix described in Knowledge Base article 838013. Note that you may be charged for this call.

If you are using the Novell Client 4.9 SP1a for Windows NT/2000/XP, you may find that sometimes you won't be able to load Windows Explorer. Novell says this is fixed with a new patch file for the Client 4.9. Get the patch in 49psp1a_loginw32.exe, which you can find at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968617.

When using the Novell Client 4.9 SP1a for Windows NT/2000/XP, there may be problems with the Microsoft Encrypted File System if you are changing passwords. Novell says this is fixed with a new patch file for the Client 4.9. Get the patch in 49psp1a_loginw32.exe, which you can find at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968617.

4/27/2004 Symantec Firewall Bug

eEye Digital Security discovered a bug in Symantec Norton Internet Security, Norton Internet Security Professional, Norton Personal Firewall and Client Firewall, in all the 2003 and 2004 versions. This bug may lead to a denial of service attack against the software, triggered by just a single packet of information. Symantec has issued patches for their products via Live Update. The full bulletin, credited to Karl Lynn, is at http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Advisories/AD20040423.html.

Apple says that the PowerBook G4 and iBook computers may show the battery with less than a 100 percent charge, yet with the power adapter plugged in the battery indicator may not show as charging. According to Apple, they designed it that way so that there won't be an short discharge/charge cycles, which tends to shorten the life of the battery. Charging will start when the battery level drops to less than 95 percent.

MandrakeSoft says that the xchat package in Mandrake Linux 9.2 and 10.0 has a bug in the Socks-5 proxy code. This may make the computer vulnerable to a remote attack. You can use Mandrake's update to get the new xchat package.

Microsoft says that some multifunction PC Cards might not be recognized when you put them into a Windows XP laptop, or a docking station. Microsoft says this is because of an incompatibility between the card and the Windows XP Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) driver. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future Windows XP service pack. If you need your fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the fix described in Knowledge Base article 840171. Note that you may get charged for this call.

Microsoft says that sometimes a Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer may give the message "It is Now Safe to Turn Off Your Computer" when you go to shut it off. While that message may be remembered from Windows 95/98, it shouldn't be appearing in 2000/XP. Instead, it may indicate some problems with power management. Microsoft has some diagnostic and trouble-shooting steps at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=810903 if you run into this problem. Chances are, the computer is not Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACP)-compliant.

If you have a Novell NetWare 6 SP1 or later server, you may find this error message written over and over in the logger screen:
LargeWriteCont: length=60032, lW->length = 60032, error = 0
The bug that is causing this has been fixed in a CIFS update for NetWare. You can get the fix in cifspt5.exe at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968723.

4/26/2004 Adobe Cameras, Apple Final Cut Pro, and a Bunch of Microsoft bugs

If you are using Camera Raw 2.2 with Adobe Photoshop CS, an update extends support for more digital cameras. The newly support cameras are the: Canon PowerShot Pro1 and EOS-1D MARK II; Nikon D70 and Coolpix 8700; Kodak DCS Pro 14nx and DCS Pro SLR/n; Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom; Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2; Sigma SD9 and SD10. There are updates for both the Windows and Mac.

Apple says that if you are running Final Cut Pro 4 without a DV device attached to the computer, and you log offline clips, they may end up with the wrong time code. Apple says this has been fixed in Final Cut Pro HD (version 4.5).

If you have Microsoft Internet Explorer running on a computer, and then you open a Microsoft Word or WordPad document that has an HTML document embedded in it, you won't be able to open the embedded document by clicking on it. Microsoft says you either need to close all the open instances of IE running, or stop embedding the documents -- you can insert a hyperlink to the document instead.

A corrupted profile in Microsoft Outlook may crash Microsoft Word 2002. This will happen if you try to insert an address into the Envelopes and Labels tool in Word, and you try to use the corrupted profile. The problem is that the error message that you will get
word has encountered a problem and needs to close.
signature: appname winword.exe
mod name - schdmapi.dll
really doesn’t point the finger at the corruption in Outlook. Microsoft says to fix this, you should create a new profile in Outlook. If you don't know how to do that, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=839368.

Microsoft says that even if you delete all the text in a header in Word 2002, the paragraph mark in the header may remain. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Microsoft says that if you create a document in Word 2002 that is based on a template with a custom docked toolbar, when you exit Word it may crash. The error signature in Word may look like
Winword.exe 10.0.2627.0 Winword.exe 10.0.2627.0 00028980
The crash will happen if the custom toolbar is there and the Styles and Formatting task pane is also open. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

4/24/2004 Troubles with Cisco Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) Passwords

Cisco says that word is circulating in the black hat community about ways to exploit security flaws in the Cisco Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) virtual private network (VPN) client. There is a group password that is scrambled on hard drives, but is not scrambled in memory. There are ways in both Windows and Linux to recover this password. Details are also circulating about ways to stage a "man in the middle" attack. Get details at
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sn-20040415-grppass.shtml.

Apple has an updated AirPort Admin Utility for Windows 3.4. They say that this version has better antenna output control, and it does much better with WPA security implementations. They only have an English version, for Windows XP/2000. Get it at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportadminutilityforwindows.html.

Apple released the FireWire Audio Driver Update 1.0.8. They say it is recommended for anyone using FireWire audio devices based on the BridgeCo Enhanced Breakout Box (BeBoB), including the FA-101 from Roland/Edirol. However, they don't say why it is recommended. If you have one of these devices, you can get the update at
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/firewireaudiodriverupdate.html.

Microsoft says that a Windows 98/ME/2000/XP computer may have problems with the Windows Update Web site. If you accept the EULA (End User License Agreement) but then your download doesn't start, and you don't have movement in the progress bar, the problem may be with these DLL files: regsvr32 msscript.ocx, regsvr32 dispex.dll, regsvr32 vbscript.dll, and regsvr32 scrrun.dll. According to Microsoft, you may need to re-register them with the operating system. The exact procedure differs with each version of Windows. Find out the correct way for your version at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=836936.

Red Hat has an updated kernel package for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3, ES 3, and WS 3. This package fixes a bug in ip_setsockopt() discovered by iSEC Security Research. This bug may let a local user get root privileges. It also fixes a buffer overflow found by iDefense in the ISO9660 filesystem code. Get the new kernel at https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-183.html.

Symantec has updated their Vulnerability Assessment 1.0. The 4/20/04 updated adds 24 more security vulnerabilities in its search. This new batch includes many of the security problems detailed by Microsoft in their April security bulletins. Get the update at http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/2004.04.20a.html.

4/23/2004 Followup on TCP Bug -- Overhyped?

A follow-up to the 4/21 BugBlog item on the flaw in TCP. The researcher, Paul Watson, who found the bug, says "The actual threat to the Internet is really small right now. You could have isolated attacks against small networks, but they would most likely be able to recover quickly." You can read more on his views on C Net at http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5197184.html?tag=cd.lede. The earlier BugBlog assessment that this is not something for end-users to worry about still holds.

4/22/2004 Microsoft Internet Explorer Gags on Compression

Microsoft says that Internet Explorer 6 may have problems with compressed HTTP data. Since IE may not read all the data in the HTTP response from the server, a web page may not completely appear, or IE may just crash. Microsoft has a hotfix, which will be included in a future service pack. To get the fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 823386. Note that you may get charged for this call.

4/21/2004 A Bug in TCP

A previously-known weakness in the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) has been announced to be somewhat worse than thought. Since this is the TCP in TCP/IP, it may have wide-ranging effects on the Internet. For now, the potential damage would mostly be denial of service attacks, mostly on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) of TCP, which could affect routers that deal with Internet traffic. At this time, it seems to be an issue for network administrators and not end-users. You can see an overview from US-CERT at http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-111A.html, and from the UK's National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (who seem to be the lead investigators) at http://www.uniras.gov.uk/vuls/2004/236929/index.htm.

Any Cisco devices that uses the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) may be vulnerable to the 4/20/2004 announcement of problems with TCP. Cisco says that attackers may be able to exploit this weakness more quickly than previously thought, which may make this a better tool for denial of service attacks. Cisco says that for now, there does not appear to be any problems for data integrity or confidentiality -- an attacker can disrupt traffic but can't break in, but "a successful attack may have additional consequences beyond terminated connection which must be considered." They have two bulletins: one for Cisco products that use IOS at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040420-tcp-ios.shtml; and one for all the other products at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040420-tcp-nonios.shtml.

If you are playing Nandeo Virtual Skipper 3 on an ATI RADEON 8500 Series graphics card, with the CATALYST 4.4 software, the game may hang at the main menu ulness you have Graphics Quality set to fastest. ATI is working on a fix for this.

If you are playing Monte Cristo Multimedia Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps on a computer with an ATI graphics card and ATI Catalyst 4.4 software, you may see corruption in the shadow display. This may get worse if you turn on anti-aliasing. ATI is working on a fix.

There is a bug in the way that Cisco IOS 12.0S, 12.1E, 12.2, 12.2S, 12.3, 12.3B and 12.3T process SNMP requests. This bug would cause the Cisco device running IOS to reload. Since it can be triggered remotely, it can be used as a denial of service attack. Cisco has fix information at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040420-snmp.shtml.

If you have a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS sound card, you may find that the THX Setup Console will revert back to its default values anytime you start it. This is fixed in the EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD Driver Patch Update.

If you have a Creative Sound Blaster Wireless Music RF Remote Control and Receiver, and you think there is too much silence between tracks in a multiple track playback, then you want to get the Firmware Upgrade version 1.20.05. It shortens this time period. There is also added functionality in the remote control and settings.

Sometimes it doesn't matter if all your patches and fixes are up-to-date, and that you use good security software. A security company surveyed office workers at a London subway station, and found that three quarters of them would tell their network password in exchange for a candy bar. You can read the story at http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5195282.html. ( I would have taken the candy, and told them my username was bgates and my password was linuxrulz, so who knows how valid this really is.)

In both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the Help and Support Center does not validate HCP URLs correctly. This may allow an attacker, via a carefully constructed URL, to trick a user into running the attacker's code on a computer. This is one of the bugs fixed in the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011. You can download the fix at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx.

In Windows NT/2000/XP, there is a buffer overflow in the way that WMF (Windows Metafile) images or Enhanced Metafile (EMF) image are rendered. This means that an attacker may be able to sneak code into your computer, hidden in these images. This is one of the bugs fixed in the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011. You can download the fix at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx.

Microsoft has announced a new way of naming updates (patches) for Windows. Each patch name is going to be of the form:
ProductName-KBArticleNumber-Option-Language.exe.
An example (this is not an actual patch) is WindowsXP-KB123456-IA64-ENU.exe. This format will be used for all versions of Windows (2000/XP/Server 2003/Small Business Server) except Windows NT.

Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 may have problems playing files that are streamed using Real Time Streaming Protocol. If the server is running Windows Media Services 9 Series, you may see this error message:
0xC00D1197 -- Windows Media Player cannot find the specified file. Be sure the path is typed correctly. If it is, the file does not exist at the specified location, or the computer where the file is stored is offline.
Microsoft has a hotfix for this. You can download the fix, plus see more technical information, at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=840227.

MySQL and More

MandrakeSoft has an updated MySQL package for Mandrake Linux 9.x, 10.0, and Corporate Server 2.1. This fixes a bug in two scripts that come along with MySQL. Because of the bug, temporary files are not created in a secure way. This may be exploited by a remote attacker. In addition to the update via Mandrake, updates are probably available directly from MySQL -- it's hard to tell because the MySQL website is so busy today (4/20/04) there have been problems connecting.

Apple has updated their AirPort Extreme. The logging from the base station is now compatible with syslog, and it is also supposed to be enhanced. The WPA security implementation also has improved performance, according to Apple. Get the update at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportupdate.html.

Apple has a Bluetooth Firmware Updater 1.1 for D-Link USB Adapters (revision B2 or later), and Apple internal Bluetooth modules on PowerBooks and PowerMacs. This update will help fix connection problems between computers and Apple Wireless keyboards and mice. It also does better waking up a computer from sleep. This update is at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bluetoothfirmwareupdater.html.

MandrakeSoft has an updated utempter package for Mandrake Linux 9.1, 9.2, 10.0, and Corporate Server 2.1. It fixes some bugs that was preventing devices from exiting correctly if paths had /../ or /./ or // in them. It also fixes a bug that may crash utempter if calls were made to strncpy and there wasn't a manual termination of the string.

Microsoft says that there is a buffer overflow in the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) Active Directory service functions. This is a critical flaw in Windows 2000/XP, and is a less sever vulnerability in Windows Server 2003. It may allow a remote attacker to run their own code on a computer. This is one of the bugs fixed in the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011. You can download the fix at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx.

There is a buffer overflow in the Private Communications Transport (PCT) protocol implementation in the Microsoft SSL library. This opens up a critical security vulnerability in Windows NT/2000, an important (step below critical) vulnerability in Windows XP, and a low vulnerability in Windows Server 2003. Because of this bug, a remote attacker may use the PCT handshake packets to run their own code on a computer. This is one of the bugs fixed in the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011. You can download the fix at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx.

Microsoft says there is a memory leak in Windows Management Instrumentation in Windows XP. If you use this long enough, the leak may cause your computer to slow down or crash. You can see evidence of the leak by starting the Windows Task Manager, going to the Processes tab, and watch the high and rising memory-usage of Svchost.exe. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future service pack. If you need the fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 8388884. Note you may get charged for this call.

The Microsoft Office Document Imaging OCR tool in Word 2002 and Word 2003 does not retain text format styles. When you scan a paper document and import it into Word, it may end up with a different font size or style. Microsoft suggests that third-party OCR software may do better in this. (In other words, this is just another one of Microsoft's limited add-ons.)

Microsoft says the Excel 2003 task pane may appear briefly and then vanish. This will happen if you have both set the task pane to Show at startup, and you have also set Excel to automatically open some files at startup. The only workaround, if you want to see that task pane, is not to load the files automatically.

Novell has updated NDS 8.x for NetWare 5.1. The new version 8.85c fixes the bug that was causing DS.NLM to give a -779 error when exporting a user certificate. You can get this update at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968251.

Novell has updated NDS 8.x for NetWare 5.1. The new version 8.85c fixes a number of problems with DSREPAIR.NLM. Without this fix, DSREPAIR may not fix blank values on obituaries, and it might report future modification timestamps when it shouldn't. It was also not removing replica attribute off external ref objects not flagged EF_EXTREF_PARTION. You can get this update at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968251.

How to Crash a Cold Fusion Server

Macromedia says that a denial of service attack can be launced against a ColdFusion MX 6.1 server by uploading files and then stopping each upload before it is over. The ColdFusion server may not reclaim disk space when this happens, so if the operation is repeated over and over, eventually you could use up the server's disk space and crash it. Macromedia has a fix for this at http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/security/security_zone/mpsb04-06.html.

4/16/2004 Money Corruption

When you are balancing an account in Microsoft Money 2003 or 2004, you won't be able to balance if some of the transactions in the account are corrupted. That's understandable. However, you won't always be told what the problem is. Instead, the Next button won't work or be grayed out. To proceed, you need to clean up the corruption. (Sounds like a political slogan.) See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=837884 for steps on how to root out that corruption.

Apple says that DVD Player 3.1.1 fixes a bug that happened on non-English versions of Mac OS X. If you were using the Graphite Mac OS X theme, DVD Player 3.1 would sometimes crash.

If you are using one of ATI's dual display products on Windows 2000/XP, using the ATI CATALYST 4.4 drivers, you may have problems with your secondary display if the primary display is running a 3D application in full screen. The secondary display may get shifted partially off the screen. ATI says that while this problem affects them, it may also affect graphics products from other vendors, too. For now, there is no fix.

Corel says that CorelDRAW 12 might sometimes give this error when you try to save one of its files
File Copy Error. TEMP Drive or Output Drive may be Full.
They have a fix that may help avoid this. You can get their fix at http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel2/Products/Download&cid
=1047022981488&pid=1047022690654 .

In Microsoft Money 2002, 2003, and 2004, split information isn't retained when you save an automatic payment, an Apay, in the register. However, split information is retained if it is an electronic payment, an Epay. So if you want to save the split info, use an Epay.
Microsoft says this isn't a bug -- they designed it this way.

On the same Windows computer, if Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) is set up to use a different HTTP proxy server than Microsoft Windows Media Player (WMP), this may cause problems with WMP. Sometimes WMP makes requests through IE, and it may get confused with the different proxies. If you are running under this configuration, you may want to do the Registry edit that Microsoft explains at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=839340.

4/15/2004 Don't Clean Up the GarageBand Files

Apple says that you shouldn't edit or delete any of the files that are in /Library/Application Support/GarageBand. Doing so may screw up Apple GarageBand. If some things, such as Apple Loops or the Instrument Library folders have been removed, you will need to reinstall the software. You may be able to repair some other changes. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93782 for details.

4/14/2004 Lots of Broken Windows

Microsoft released a security update on 4/13/2004 that covers Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003, and included fixes for fourteen separate problems in Windows. Many of these problems are critical, and could lead to somebody remotely taking control of a computer, or exploits like the MSBlaster worm. They give credit to many different outside security companies for finding the individual flaws. Rather than try to cover each of these individual flaws here, the best thing to do is just go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-011.mspx to get the patch for your version of Windows.

Microsoft released a cumulative security update for Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003, to fix four security flaws for Remote Procedure Call (RPC/DCOM). This updated fixes bugs that may allow computers to be remotely attacked and taken over, and some of the bugs rate the designation of critical. The update also replaces earlier Microsoft patches for RPC that go back as far as 1998 (for Windows NT). Links to fixes for each version of Windows, as well as more details on the flaws, are at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-012.mspx.

Microsoft has released a cumulative security update for Outlook Express 5.5 and 6.0, running on Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003. In addition to all previous fixes, this update also fixes a new bug in the way that OE processes MHTML URLs, that could lead to a remote attack and code execution. Links to the update for all the different versions of OE are at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-013.mspx.

Microsoft has patched the Microsoft Jet Database Engine 4.0, a component found on Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003. This fixes a bug that may allow a remote attacker to run their own code on the computer. You can get this update at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-014.mspx.

Because of the far-reaching changes in the security bulletins Microsoft released on 4/13/2004, Microsoft has made major revisions to a number of earlier Security Bulletins. These include MS00-082, MS-01-041, MS02-011, and MS03-046. All these bulletins deal with Exchange Server 5.0. If you are still running that, check out the upgrades.

Apple has released Mac OS Runtime for Java 2.2.6, but it is not for everybody. In fact you only need it if you have Oracle 11i client applications that need to communicate over HTTPS to Oracle application servers. If that's you, get the update at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120209.

If you are playing Microsoft Halo on a Windows XP compute with an ATI RADEON 8500 graphics card and the ATI CATALYST 4.3 or 4.4 drivers, you may have hidden or background objects overlapping the foreground objects. You may also be able to see through walls that you shouldn't see through. ATI says they will be working on this, but there is no fix yet.

ATI says that their CATALYST 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 drivers may interfere with third-party programs that adjust monitor calibration, especially for things like gamma settings and color profiles. ATI has grabbed control of this, and you can manipulate it from the Display Propertties, ATI Color tab. If you want third-party control, they say you should revert back to the earlier CATALYST 4.1 display drivers.

If some of you out there are still using IBM Lotus 1-2-3 version 9.8.1, if you try to open multiple Excel worksheets, 1-2-3 may crash. IBM has a patch to fix this. Get it at
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24006764&rs=260.

Red Hat has patched their squid package for Enterprise Linux 2.1 and 3. This fixes a bug in the way that squid, which is a Web proxy cache, handles %-encoded characters in a URL. The bug may allow some clients to access URLs that they shouldn't be allowed to access. Get the fix at https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-133.html.

Red Hat has patched the CVS version control system that is included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 and 3.0. This fixes a bug that may allow a malicious server (is a malicious server a waiter with a bad attitude?) to attack CVS clients. You can get the fix at
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-153.html.

Zone Labs has released ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5.594.000. This version fixes a bug with the ID Lock display. It also takes care of some other unspecified routine maintenance. You can get the upgrade at http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/zap/releaseHistory.html.

Apple says that if you have your firewall working on a Mac OS X 10.1.5 - 10.2.8 computer, iTunes music sharing won't work. Other iTunes users will be able to see the iTunes shared name, but the playlists won't load. If you want to share, you are going to have to open up the iTunes sharing port on your firewall. See how to do that at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107547.

In the Ubisoft game Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the game might lock up after a few minutes if it is played on a Windows XP computer with an ATI RADEON 8500 series graphics card, and the ATI CATALYST 4.3 or 4.4 display drivers. ATI has no fix at this time.

When playing LucasArts Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy on a Windows XP computer with an ATI RADEON graphics card and the ATI CATALYST driver 4.3 or earlier, you may get display corruption in the game. This has been fixed in the ATI CATALYST driver 4.4.

If a Windows XP computer is trying to print to a PostScript printer at 1200 dots per inch (dpi), and the program doing the printing is using Windows GDI+ technology, you may run into problems. Microsoft says that transparent text, graphics, bullets and rotated text may print too large, or on the wrong part of the page. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future service pack. If you need the fix right away, contact Microsoft Tech Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 834463. Note you may get charged for this call.

Microsoft says that if you paste a large Excel worksheet into Word 2002, you may lose part of it (the part that extends beyond the margins) if you paste the worksheet using one of these formats: Microsoft Excel 5.0 Worksheet Object; Rich Text Format (RTF); Picture; Bitmap; Picture (Enhanced Metafile); HTML Format. Microsoft says this is fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

4/12/2004 MP3 Trojans for the Macintosh

Mac owners who were feeling smug about the lack of security threats on their platform of choice, may want to read about MP3Concept. It is a demonstration program that shows how MP3 programs can deliver a Trojan on a Macintosh. According to Symantec, an actual malicious program hasn't been released yet -- this just shows how it can be done. According to the conspiracy-minded, this is all a plot by the security companies to get Mac users to spend more on their AV products. You can read more at http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/mp3concept.html, as well as other security sites on the Web.

Apple says that iPhoto 4 may sometimes get confused a think that the file size of a photo may be several billion megabytes. If this happends you won't be able to burn it to a CD or DVD, because iPhoto will think it can't fit. Apple says this has been fixed in iPhoto 4.0.1.

Cisco says that a bug in the Cisco IP Security (IPSec) VPN Services Module (VPNSM) may crash a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switch or the Cisco 7600 Series Internet Router hardware. Attackers can use this to mount a denial of service attack against this hardware. Cisco has patched this software at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040408-vpnsm.shtml.

IBM has released Lotus Domino 6.5.1 Interim Fix Pack 1. It fixes a number of bugs, including authentication problems where the same local user name and password are used in differenct places, and a proble where the wrong web user name is matched. Get the update at
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24006552&rs=260.

In Microsoft Outlook Express 6, if you open an email message, close it, open another message, and then go back to open the first message again, you may see this error message:
SysFader: Msimn.exe - Application Error: The instruction at "0x77ec83c4" referenced memory at "0x00400067". The memory could not be "read".
This will happen if you receive an email message that does not contain a From field but does contain a Sender field. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future service pack. If you need the fix right away, contact Microsoft Tech Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 828133. Note you may get charged for this call.

If you apply the Q830903 hotfix to Windows XP, when you go to the Local Area Connection properties dialog, you may find the wrong language on the Authorize tab. This happens because the Windows XP Hotfix Q830903 installs a version of the Xpsp2res.dll file that contains components in the English language. If your language shouldn't be English, this can cause problems. Microsoft has a hotfix to fix this earlier hotfix. If you can, wait for the next Windows XP service pack that contains this fix. If you need it right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 838050. Note that you may be charged for this call.

4/9/2004 Major Flaw in Internet Explorer, Plus Macromedia, Mandrake and Novell Fixes

Want another reason why bundling a browser into the operating system might not be a good idea? Compliments of CERT and the Department of Homeland Security(DHS), here is a warning on how Microsoft Internet Explorer can be tricked into running arbitrary code (ie. a worm, Trojan, or virus) via a compiled help file. There is no patch available yet from Microsoft, so the advice from CERT and DHS is to disable Active Scripting and ActiveX controls in the local Machine Zone. You can read the details at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/323070.

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 (the actual version number is 7) may have problem displaying characters some some eastern European languages. If it can't find a meta tag that specifies the encoding, it makes a guess to use latin-1, which may be wrong. Macromedia has added a new preference in Dreamweaver 7.01 that will let you instruct Dreamweaver to check the encoding, and if none is found, to use a specified default encoding.

If you are using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 to work on some ASP.NET or JSP pages in design view, some bugs may cause Dreamweaver to crash. The crashes may also occur when you add bold or italics to text that has a color style applied to it. These bugs have been fixed in the Dreamweaver 7.0.1 update.

Mandrake has an updated MPlayer package for Mandrake Linux 9.2 and 10. This fixes a buffer overflow that may let a remote attacker trick Mplayer into running hostile code. You can get the update from http://www.mandrakesecure.net/en/advisories/advisory.php?name=MDKSA-2004:026

If people are trying to connect to their America Online accounts from behind Novell BorderManager 3.7, they may be having difficulties. While many network administrators may be thinking "Serves them right" there may actually be good reasons for trying to do this. BorderManager 3.7 Post-Support Pack 3 Field Patch4A should fix the problem.

If you are running the Novell BorderManager 3.7 firewall, with logging enabled, it may start to have problems if it has been running for a long time under stress. This has been fixed by BorderManager 3.7 Post-Support Pack 3 Field Patch4A.

If you are running a Citrix client with Novell BorderManager 3.7, the Citrix client may keep asking for multiple authentications. This has been fixed by BorderManager 3.7 Post-Support Pack 3 Field Patch4A.

4/8/2004 Cisco Left a Backdoor That Can't Be Locked

It appears that Cisco hardwired in a default username/password into their Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE) and Hosting Solution Engine (HSE) software. With this information, anyone could log on and control the device. As this software ships, there is no way to disable the username (oops!) nor any workaround. You will have to get the upgraded software, which is available from Cisco at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040407-username.shtml

4/7/2004 Music, Apple, and Microsoft

The security group NGSSoftware has posted a security alert about the popular digital music player Winamp. Because of a bug in the way Winamp takes care of memory, it may be possible for an attacker to use a malicious HTML file to get Winamp to run the attacker's code. This has been fixed in Winamp 5.0.3. You can download it at http://www.winamp.com/player/

The security group NGSSoftware has found a potential security bug in a component used by many RealNetworks software products, including RealPlayer 8, RealOne Player, RealOne Player 2 for Windows, and RealPlayer Enterprise. The component is the R3T plugin. RealNetworks has an update that will remove the plugin and thus close the security hole. Get it at http://service.real.com/help/faq/security/040406_r3t/en/

Apple has released a security update for Mac OS X 10.3.3 on 4/5/2004. It fixes problems with CUPS Printing, libxml2, Mail, and OpenSSL, although they are keeping the details hidden to prevent exploits. Get the update at
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate_2004-04-05_(10_3_3).html.

Apple has released a security update for Mac OS X 10.2.8 on 4/5/2004. This update fixes some problems with CUPS Printing. The 1/26/2004 security update is also included here too. That means there are also updates for AFP Server, Apache 1.3, cd9660.util, Classic, Directory Services, fetchmail, fs_usage, and Mail. Get the update at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate_2004-04-05_(10_2_8).html

Microsoft updated the Office Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter on 3/23/2004. Presumably, it will do a better job of screening out the Nigerian business ventures, Viagra ads, and dating service offers. Microsoft recommends that you download it from the Office Update web site, but you can find out more about it at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=835235.

Microsoft says that in Microsoft Office Project 2003, if you have an administrative project saved to the Project Server, when you do a Build Team from Enterprise and then view available resources, you may see a graph without data ranging over the dates from 1984 to 1986. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future Office 2003 Service Pack. If you need the fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support, and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 838879. Note that you may be charged for this call.

Microsoft says that in Office Project 2003, if a project plan manager tries to sychronize a project plan, it may not handle correctly actual work submitted by a resource. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future Office 2003 Service Pack. If you need the fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support, and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 838026. Note that you may be charged for this call.

4/6/2004 iPhoto Problems, Plus an Office 2003 Hotfix

Apple says that if you upgrade to iPhoto 4, do not try to use libraries created by this newer version in iPhoto 2. There is a new library format in iPhoto 4, that not only can't be read in iPhoto 2, Apple says that if you try, you may damage the library and it won't work in iPhoto 4 any more, either. As a workaround, export photos from iPhoto 4, and then import them into iPhoto 2.

Adobe PageMaker 7.0.1a has some compatibility problems with other Adobe products -- Acrobat 5.0, 6.0, and 6.0 Professional. In particular, PageMaker doesn't automatically apply the Adobe Standard security settings when it creates PDF 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 documents. This has been fixed in a PageMaker update that you can find at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2426.

If Adobe PageMaker 7.0.1a is running on a computer where the target My Documents folder has been moved from its default location, you may have problems saving PageMaker files. Adobe has an update for PageMaker that should fix this. Users will be prompted to save changes, and they will actually be saved. You can get this update at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2426.

If you have controls on a Microsoft Excel 2003 worksheet, and you change your screen resolution, the size of the screen controls might change. This has been fixed in an Office 2003 hotfix. It will be included in a future Office 2003 Service Pack, but if you don't want to wait you can call Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hitfix described in Knowledge Base article 835704. Note that you may be charged for this call.

On a Microsoft Windows network, you can enforce a policy that says Find Printer buttons are not available to users. However, Microsoft says that the Find Printer button may still show up in Office 2003 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) Print dialogs. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be released in a future service pack. If you want the fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 835704. Note that you may get charged for this call.

If a Microsoft Office 2003 document has a number of custom document properties, it may take a lot longer than normal to open the document in Microsoft Internet Explorer. This has been fixed in an Office 2003 hotfix. It will be included in a future Office 2003 Service Pack, but if you don't want to wait you can call Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hitfix described in Knowledge Base article 835704. Note that you may be charged for this call.

4/5/2004 It's Opening Day! Baseball and Bugs.

After upgrading to the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Driver 56.72, you may have problems with the Enter key when using the NVIDIA control panel. According to NVIDIA, pressing the Enter key in a dialog may not have its intended result. They say this will be fixed in a future driver release.

There is a patch for EA Sports MVP Baseball 2004. It fixes some bugs that crept into the controls, that may affect Keyboard 2 pitches, the Steal button, and more.

IBM says you may run into problems on WebSphere when using the Portal Document Manager. Problems may occur when PDM is used with separate projects in separate pages on the same Portal place. If this happens, you may get this HTTP error message
404 File not found
IBM has a fix for this. You can find it at
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24006632&rs=260

According to Microsoft, if you have Friendly HTTP error messages turned on in Internet Explorer 6.0, it may interfere with your ability to use Dell OpenManage Server Administrator. You may not be able to upload files to the Web server. Instead, you will get this error message
The page cannot be displayed.
As a workaround, turn off this option in IE 6. Go to Tools, Internet Options, and go to the Advnaced tab.

Microsoft says that that Internet Explorer 6 may not be able to open files that have been compressed using GZIP compression. Try it, and you may see the error message
Fail to load Domain Tables
Microsoft says they have a hotfix for this, but it can only be applied after installing Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1. You can either wait for the next service pack that contains this fix, or contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the fix described in Knowledge Base article 837251. Note that you may be charged for this call.

Microsoft says that a number of their cumulative patches for Microsoft Internet Explorer, including MS03-032, MS03-040, MS03-048, and MS04-004, may prevent the Service Advertising Protocol to work on the computer. This protocol is a non-Microsoft service, and the memory it tries to use may conflict with other programs. Microsoft has a hotfix for this problem. You can either wait for a future service pack that contains this fix, or you can contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 837920. Note that you may be charged for this call.

4/4/2004 Microsoft Upgrades Wi-Fi Security in Windows XP

Microsoft has released a Support Patch for Wi-Fi Protected Access. This will increase security according to new standards developed by the WiFi Alliance. Some details on the security upgrade are at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=815485. This page will also link you to the patch download.

4/3/2004 Dreamweaver Scripts May Be Security Breach

Macromedia says that when you use dynamic web pages in Dreamweaver MX, which rely on databases, some of Dreamweavers's default behavior may leave you vulnerable. What happens ks that some scripts are automatically placed in your _mmServerScripts in the root of your website. An attacker may be able to take advantage of them to gain some access to your system. As a workaround, you should make sure these scripts are only on your testing server, not a webserver, and that databases are protected by strong usernames and passwords. See http://www.macromedia.com/support/dreamweaver/ts/documents/rem_db_security.htm?
trackingid=DMJL_AACE for full details

April 2, 2004 OpenOffice Fixes, and Spim vs Spam

In OpenOffice 1.1, if a word processing document has bullets or non-breaking hyphens, you may crash OpenOffice if you look at the document in online layout view and then minimize the window. This has been fixed in OpenOffice 1.1.1.

When you update Mac OS X or OS X Server to version 10.3.3, the update process overwrites the /etc/ttys file without backing it up. If you did any customization to that file, so that you could use Login and/or logout hooks, Secure console in single-user mode, or Customized communication speed on the Xserve's serial port, these customizations will be lost. Apple says to back this file up before the update.

Maybe you have already heard this, but I hadn't. A new term in the Instant Messaging world for an unsolicited commercial email message is Spim, the IM equivalent of Spam.

MandrakeSoft has a update for their squid package for Mandrake Linux 9.x, 10.0, Multi Network Firewall 8.2, and Corporate Server. It patches a security hole in the way squid uses access control lists (ACLs) that may let a remote attacker to visit URLs that should be off limits.

Novell has gathered up a number of fixes for their Client 4.9 that have been released after that Client's Support Pack 1a. It includes a fix for the bug that causes 601 errors when you try to administer Novell BorderManager, or if you try to change passwords. You can get the fix package (which I guess is smaller than a Support Pack) from http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968596.

It may not have been possible to open a Hebrew language version of a Microsoft Word document in OpenOffice 1.1. This has been fixed in OpenOffice 1.1.1.

In OpenOffice 1.1.0, if you try to import Autotext from a template in an unsupported format, such as a Microsoft Word 6 or 7 document, this may cause OpenOffice to crash. In OpenOffice 1.1.1, there are still text formats that are unsupported, but if you try to import them you will see an error message that says you can't do that. It won't cause the program to crash.

In OpenOffice 1.1.0, if you try to compare two documents, and one of those documents has certain features (deleted tables, or certain types of anchored frames) OpenOffice may crash. This has been fixed in OpenOffice 1.1.1.

If you are running OpenOffice 1.1.0 on Linux, the scanner component may cause OpenOffice to crash. This has been fixed in OpenOffice 1.1.1.

April 1, 2004 April Fool's Day Means MS Fix Day

After you upgrade to Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series, you may see that it leads to more network activity (if you have a network, that is.) That is because, by default, Media Player monitors the My Music folder, and if that folder is on a network share somewhere, it means a busier network. Microsoft says to turn off this option if your content is on a shared resource, so that this background monitoring will end.

Microsoft has a Remove Hidden Data add-in for Office 2003 and Office XP that helps remove some of the data that isn't ordinarily visible in a Word or Excel document, but that can be brought to light. Microsoft points out that if you have Fast Save operating, you might have to run this add-in a couple of times.

Microsoft says the Remove Hidden Data Add-in for Office XP and Office 2003 works differently on Excel. Printer paths get removed from Excel 2003, but they are not removed from Excel 2002.

After installing the MS04-004 security fix for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, trying to use it to connect to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services by either HTTP or HTTPS, you may either crash Internet Explorer or get an HTTP 500 error. To clear up the problem caused by this security fix, Microsoft has a new hotfix for you. You can get it at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=831167.