[14967] in bugtraq
Re: Microsoft to release a new Outlook Security patch
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay R. Ashworth)
Fri May 19 20:11:38 2000
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Message-Id: <16537.000519@baylink.com>
Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 12:53:38 -0400
Reply-To: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra@BAYLINK.COM>
From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra@BAYLINK.COM>
X-To: "Richard M. Smith" <rms2000@BELLATLANTIC.NET>
To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS.COM
In-Reply-To: <NDBBKGHPMKBKDDGLDEEHAENLDIAA.rms2000@bellatlantic.net>
On Monday, May 15, 2000, at 9:16:30 AM, you wrote:
> Business Week is reporting that Microsoft is preparing patches
> for Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 to help prevent Email worms like
> LoveBug and Melissa. The article is available online at:
> http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2000/nf00515d.htm
> The patches will do 2 things:
> 1. Prevent users from running VBScript and other executable
> programs that come in as Email attachments.
Alas, not exactly. The patches, enumerated more fully in several
articles pointed to by my Metafilter posting on the topic a few days
ago <http://www.metafilter.com/detail.cfm?link_ID=1699>, cause Outlook
to automatically at least hide, and possibly delete outright, *any
executable attachment at all* that the mail program ever receives.
This "throw the baby out with the bathwater" reaction is so typically
Microsoft; the people whom it inconveniences won't blame *Microsoft*,
they'll blame people like me, who were complaining about the problem.
"It's your fault: if you hadn't bitched about this, Microsoft wouldn't
have done that".
Shyeah. Right.
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth jra@baylink.com
Member of the Technical Staff
The Suncoast Freenet
Tampa Bay, Florida http://baylink.pitas.com +1 888 806 1654
