MS update sends PCs 'haywire'
Early reports are suggesting problems after users apply one of the six patches issued by Microsoft on Tuesday. — Applying the MS07-040 patch for the .NET framework, which as luck would have it is probably Redmond's most important security fix this month …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft shipped its six-patch batch on Tuesday's cycle, and MS07-040 — the .NET framework fix The Register flags as probably the most important security update of the month — is the one early reports tie to machines going 'haywire' after installation. The claims about breakage remain unconfirmed, so severity is still an open question.
What makes this worth watching is the track record: a December 2005 patch jammed up IE, and in August 2006 a fix meant to close holes left users open to attack instead. A third consecutive year of Patch Tuesday quality trouble would sharpen the dilemma for administrators who must choose between deploying Redmond's most critical fix of the month and holding back until the kinks surface.
First-order effects
- IT administrators face an immediate deployment decision on MS07-040: it addresses the month's most important vulnerability, yet early unconfirmed reports say installation is destabilizing some PCs.
- Users who already applied Tuesday's six patches may need to roll back or troubleshoot affected machines if the .NET-related breakage reports are substantiated.
Second-order effects
- If MS07-040 proves faulty, expect enterprise shops to slow-walk future Patch Tuesday rollouts, trading faster protection for a testing buffer — which extends the window the vulnerabilities were meant to close.
- A pattern of broken fixes pushes third-party patch-management vendors into a larger role as de-facto QA, testing updates before customers deploy them.
Third-order effects
- Repeated quality failures erode the assumed contract of the monthly security cycle — that patches are net-positive by default — and push both Microsoft's process and customer expectations toward staged, verified deployment as the norm.
The trend: Patch management is drifting from automatic trust in vendor fixes toward verification-first deployment, as each flawed Patch Tuesday raises the cost of installing promptly.