http://www.cutawaysecurity.com/blog/archives/191 Cutaway's Observations, Opinions, Rants, Raves, Tantrums, and Tirades Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:30:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.cutawaysecurity.com/blog/archives/191/comment-page-1#comment-30602 www.andrewhay.ca » Suggested Blog Reading - Monday September 24th, 2007 Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:35:17 +0000 http://www.cutawaysecurity.com/blog/archives/191#comment-30602 [...] The Next Phase in Patching - I like the idea of the “central update console” but will Microsoft pay for the creation and maintenance of such a service out of the goodness of their hearts? I have my doubts. Here is my solution: Microsoft needs to come up with a Central Update Console that software and driver developers can hook to configure automatic updates. They already provide this type of feature through the “Add/Remove Programs” console. Good developers utilize this to help users and administrators manage the software that is installed on their systems. How hard would it be to come up with a solution that other developers could hook to help with centralizing the management of updates and provide a significant positive impact on the overall security of every computer on the Interweb? Although the design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance of this project would be challenging, I am willing to be that this would be a small project in the grand scheme of Microsoft OS development. They don’t need to take every software vendor into consideration, they just need to come up with one method all of them could use. Once a system is developed software developers can start modifying their products to hook the console. They wouldn’t need to take out their current auto-update mechanism, rather, they could leave it in place. This is how the “Add/Remove Programs” console works. Software developers have not removed the mechanism to uninstall from their software, rather, they have placed hooks in the “Add/Remove Programs” console that calls their uninstall and repair mechanism. Users and admins who prefer a particular method are all satisfied. [...] [...] The Next Phase in Patching – I like the idea of the “central update console” but will Microsoft pay for the creation and maintenance of such a service out of the goodness of their hearts? I have my doubts. Here is my solution: Microsoft needs to come up with a Central Update Console that software and driver developers can hook to configure automatic updates. They already provide this type of feature through the “Add/Remove Programs” console. Good developers utilize this to help users and administrators manage the software that is installed on their systems. How hard would it be to come up with a solution that other developers could hook to help with centralizing the management of updates and provide a significant positive impact on the overall security of every computer on the Interweb? Although the design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance of this project would be challenging, I am willing to be that this would be a small project in the grand scheme of Microsoft OS development. They don’t need to take every software vendor into consideration, they just need to come up with one method all of them could use. Once a system is developed software developers can start modifying their products to hook the console. They wouldn’t need to take out their current auto-update mechanism, rather, they could leave it in place. This is how the “Add/Remove Programs” console works. Software developers have not removed the mechanism to uninstall from their software, rather, they have placed hooks in the “Add/Remove Programs” console that calls their uninstall and repair mechanism. Users and admins who prefer a particular method are all satisfied. [...]

]]> http://www.cutawaysecurity.com/blog/archives/191/comment-page-1#comment-30161 Microsoft Can’t Manage Third-Party Patches, Even Though It’s A Good Idea | securosis.com Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:23:26 +0000 http://www.cutawaysecurity.com/blog/archives/191#comment-30161 [...] has a good post up today over at Security Ripcord. In it, he suggest that Microsoft should… well, I’ll let him [...] [...] has a good post up today over at Security Ripcord. In it, he suggest that Microsoft should… well, I’ll let him [...]

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