bmw
September 6th, 2003, 20:54
Andreas Marx is a reliable source. He posted this to Bugtraq; the upshot is: migrate off Windows 98 and 98SE asap because it will quickly become a target for worms & viruses.
Hi!
I was just wondering what has happened with MS03-034, because Windows 98
was not listed as platform anymore (in the section "Platforms not
affected"), only Windows Me. This usually means, that this platform is not
supported any longer and no further patches will be provided anymore. I
contacted Microsoft and they told me, that this is the case with Windows
98/98 SE:
THERE WILL BE NO MORE (FREE) SECURITY UPDATES FOR THIS PLATFORM (WIN 98).
PERIOD.
According to their lifecycle policy
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;[ln];lifeprodw) the
free-of-charge support period has ended 30-Jun-2003. But I always thought
that they will still be releasing security updates until the
end-of-life-period, which is, according to the above website, 16-Jan-2004.
However, I was wrong. So, if you're still using Windows 98/98 SE you should
switch to an other OS very soon. I'm sure that new security vulnerabilities
will be discovered on this platform and due to the fact, that there will be
no more security updates, the use of Windows 98 will get more and more
risky every day. Virus authors will adopt these security vulnerabilities
soon to get their nasty malwares spreading faster than ever. And without a
proper fix from MS, you will run into big trouble.
If a Blaster-like worm will be released that affected Win 9x platforms, you
won't be able to use your computer anymore, because there will be no fix
for it. No av program would help you much, because they can only stop
dropped files, but not the exploit itself. You have lost. You will need to
switch to a more recent OS. And you have to pay for it...
cheers,
Andreas Marx
Head of the Anti-Virus Test Center at the University of Magdeburg, Germany
--
Andreas Marx <amarx@gega-it.de>, http://www.av-test.org
GEGA IT-Solutions GbR, Klewitzstr. 7, 39112 Magdeburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)391 6075466, Fax: +49 (0)391 6075469
Hi!
I was just wondering what has happened with MS03-034, because Windows 98
was not listed as platform anymore (in the section "Platforms not
affected"), only Windows Me. This usually means, that this platform is not
supported any longer and no further patches will be provided anymore. I
contacted Microsoft and they told me, that this is the case with Windows
98/98 SE:
THERE WILL BE NO MORE (FREE) SECURITY UPDATES FOR THIS PLATFORM (WIN 98).
PERIOD.
According to their lifecycle policy
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;[ln];lifeprodw) the
free-of-charge support period has ended 30-Jun-2003. But I always thought
that they will still be releasing security updates until the
end-of-life-period, which is, according to the above website, 16-Jan-2004.
However, I was wrong. So, if you're still using Windows 98/98 SE you should
switch to an other OS very soon. I'm sure that new security vulnerabilities
will be discovered on this platform and due to the fact, that there will be
no more security updates, the use of Windows 98 will get more and more
risky every day. Virus authors will adopt these security vulnerabilities
soon to get their nasty malwares spreading faster than ever. And without a
proper fix from MS, you will run into big trouble.
If a Blaster-like worm will be released that affected Win 9x platforms, you
won't be able to use your computer anymore, because there will be no fix
for it. No av program would help you much, because they can only stop
dropped files, but not the exploit itself. You have lost. You will need to
switch to a more recent OS. And you have to pay for it...
cheers,
Andreas Marx
Head of the Anti-Virus Test Center at the University of Magdeburg, Germany
--
Andreas Marx <amarx@gega-it.de>, http://www.av-test.org
GEGA IT-Solutions GbR, Klewitzstr. 7, 39112 Magdeburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)391 6075466, Fax: +49 (0)391 6075469