Microsoft flags light September patch run

Microsoft this week will release two easy Patch Tuesday bulletins to address four issues in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server and System Center Configuration Manager and address privilege elevation flaws.

"The first patch, rated important, will apply to Visual FoxPro, which is a set of tools used to create and manage high-performance, 32-bit database applications and components," Trustwave SpiderLabs security research director Ziv Madorat said.

“The second patch, also rated important, will apply to System Center Configuration Manager, which helps manage physical, virtual and mobile clients with things like application delivery, desktop virtualisation and security.”

nCircle security operations director Andrew Storms said September would be a "very light month" for Microsoft patching.

But he warned IT security teams against being "lulled into a false sense of security".

"They should use this time to get caught up applying existing patches and to change or replace cryptographic key lengths on the certificates used for older Microsoft systems," Storms said.

Some administrators will be sent scrambling next month to update cryptographic keys for Public Key Infrastructure in line with Redmond's move to increase key length to at least 1024 bits for Windows platforms dating back to XP. 

The security boost was flagged last year and will block programs from interacting with systems that use keys shorter than 1024 bits. Internet Explorer, for example, will not be able to access secure sites that use certificates with short keys.

Angela Gunn from Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing flagged a series of errors which adminstrators of legacy architecture may experience.

• Error messages when browsing to web sites that have SSL certificates with keys that are less than 1024 bits
• Problems enrolling for certificates when a certificate request attempts to utilize a key that is less than 1024 bits
• Difficulties creating or consuming email (S/MIME) messages that utilize less than 1024 bit keys for signatures or encryption
• Difficulties installing Active X controls that were signed with less than 1024 bit signatures
• Difficulties installing applications that were signed with less than 1024 bit signatures (unless they were signed prior to January 1, 2010, which will not be blocked by default)

With Darren Pauli.