On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 19:52:30 -0400, Lisa Collins
wrote:

Actually SP2 already has major security problems. Specifically, SP2
contains a feature that allows the an attacker to turn off your firewall
but spoof the Windows Security Center to report that all is well and that
the firewall is still active when in fact it has been disabled and your
system has been compromised.

To quote eWeek.com, "it may not be a security hole but rather a crater."
Don't take my word for it. Have a look he
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1639456,00.asp
or he
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1639276,00.asp

I would agree with you that the best option is to purchase a firewall and
block off all unneed ports. Microsoft has a terrible security track record
and from all indications, SP2 is going to continue the tradition.

Thanks for posting that. I was already aware of it, but it's good
info, if a bit hysterical (not you, the eweek article). Yup, SP2 has
security problems. So will SP3. Windows is a fundamentally
unsecure platform from the architecture to the implementation and will
remain so for the near future. Even the new improved firewall is not
so hot compared to freely available and free third party software.
But SP2 is an improvement over the naked XP system I referenced.

In my mind this particular potential exploit is serious, but not a
deal breaker. To use it, you have to get an executable onto the users
system in the first place. Windows being what it is, you can do just
about anything once you get an executable on the system. SP2 offers
some protection against that happening in the first place. The last
paragraph of the eveek article you cite says:

"Do we think that end users should upgrade? Yes, Windows XP Service
Pack 2 is a must do, especially for end users. However, we would
recommend users not take the WSC as gospel, If you use an antivirus,
or 3rd party firewall, look at their status panels as a sanity check.
Keep your Antivirus, windows, firewall updates current, and most of
all, be very careful of what you run on your system. "

They actually are higher on this thing than I am. I agree with you
that a first class hardware/software firewall is a better way to go.
Getting away from Outlook and IE is even better. I'm not sure how to
mandate that, though.

Just to be clear to everyone, I don't have a horse in this race. I
think Windows sucks. But I know that anyone with autoupdate on will
be on SP2 soon. The almost universal recommendation in the press is
to install it, so I think it's a fact of life.

My only real purpose was to try out some programs r.b.e. users care
about and let them know how it works. I should have stuck with that
and left my editorial opinions for another thread. My bad.
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