July 2006 Security Updates

Seven patches—five critical, and two important—were released on the July 2006 “Patch Tuesday” to address a large number of vulnerabilities in Windows and Office, including some vulnerabilities with Office documents for which limited attacks were already occurring. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s decision to use Windows Update to distribute a prerelease version of its Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications software as a high-priority update is still causing customer concern, including the filing of lawsuits alleging that the software is spyware.

Critical Patches

Two critical patches were released to address problems with Windows that could allow an attacker to take full control of a Windows-based computer. The first involves the manner in which Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) clients request information from a DHCP server, and the second affects the Windows Server service, which, in conjunction with the Server Messenger Block (SMB) protocol, allows Windows users to share files and folders with other users. (Note that the Windows Server service is a feature of both Windows client and Windows Server editions.)