Broken Windows

Ever worry about the security holes in your graphics and audio technology?  Yep, you guessed it, there’s a critical flaw in DirectX (specifically how it handles MIDI files) that will—say it with me, now—let an attacker take control of your Windows machine.  Go, read the security bulletin and get the patch.  Again.  For the second time in nine days.

To those who are wondering when meyerweb became the Windows Security Monitor: rest assured, I’m only passing along the flaws that Microsoft deems “critical.”  The lesser severity levels (like “important”) don’t get mentioned, because otherwise I suspect I wouldn’t have room to talk about anything else.  If you’re running Windows, you really should go sign up to get security bulletins sent to you.  It may increase your daily e-mail traffic, but at least you’ll be informed.

Critical security flaws in the multimedia APIs?  Picture me shaking my head in weary, resigned disbelief here.  The amazing part to me is that people actually choose to buy machines using this technology—and I seem to be using that term very loosely.  The real irony is that I may be buying such a machine myself, in the not too distant future.  Quite possibly next Sunday, A.D.

• Broken Windows was published on Sunday, July 27th, 2003.
• It was assigned to the Tech category.
• There have been no replies.