Updated: July 11, 2020 (February 6, 2000)

Security Update

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

The table below shows security patches issued between Dec. 10, 1999, and Jan. 21, 2000. Bulletins that describe these patches are located at www.microsoft.com/Security/Bulletins/ except where indicated.

Two security bulletins described below share a common patch: bulletin 99-056 (a bug in Windows NT’s “syskey” encryption utility that exposes passwords) and bulletin 99-057 (a bug that causes NT to stop responding after receiving a malformed security identifier request). Note also that bulletin 99-060 covers two separate issues on the Macintosh: a bug in Outlook Express 5.0 that deposits attachments on a user’s system, and a problem with expired digital certificates in Internet Explorer 4.5.

Threat	Systems Affected	Cause	Bulletin
A hacker who obtains a copy of the Security Account Manager (SAM) database can steal user passwords	Windows NT 4.0. A hacker needs access to the machine’s SAM database to exploit the weakness.	The SAM database includes user passwords

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