Yet another really nasty security hole

Two serious security holes in two weeks is a very bad thing, especially because the second one sounds a lot like crying wolf. Last week’s hole had security experts saying, “This is pretty bad, but it could be worse.” From the sound of things, this week’s is worse.

A flaw in how Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange handle enriched text can be used to hack computers simply by sending a malformed e-mail message. Apparently all you need to do is receive one of these messages and you’re hacked. The hole hasn’t been exploited yet and Microsoft already released a patch, so visit www.windowsupdate.com and install it ASAP.

Lots of people are quite happy with Outlook, but to me it’s a bloated, overly complicated and insecure piece of shit. I use Thunderbird. Eudora is also nice, but it won’t translate my spam mail into Swedish Chef English like Thunderbird.

Rich Pav

Richard has been living in Japan since 1990 with his wife and two teenage sons, Tony and Andy.

2 thoughts to “Yet another really nasty security hole”

    1. I heard him say that, and I was surprised that he would make such an accusation. He must have known what the reaction was going to be. It also made me realize I should be careful about what I say. Even on a much smaller scale, I wouldn’t want to be the center of a similar contraversy.

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