Missing Critical Updates - why?

[occam]

Hi

I am running XP Pro (SP3) -- what I thought was fully patched (as of
yesterday).

I came across a program called 'Windows Vulnerability Scanner' (v 1.38).

When I ran it, it came up with 3 missing 'critical' patches, all of
which a genuine

- KB956844 (MS09-046)
- KB973908 (MS09-037)
- KB967340 (MS09-017)

Before I download and run these -- any idea why Windows Update would
have completely missed these?

Suplementary question - assuming my system does not need these (e.g. the
pre-conditions for these patches do not exist) would it do any harm if I
install these anyway?

Thanks for any pointers.

 

[occam]

Hi

I am running XP Pro (SP3) -- what I thought was fully patched (as of
yesterday).

I came across a program called 'Windows Vulnerability Scanner' (v 1.38).

When I ran it, it came up with 3 missing 'critical' patches, all of
which a genuine

- KB956844 (MS09-046)
- KB973908 (MS09-037)
- KB967340 (MS09-017)

Before I download and run these -- any idea why Windows Update would
have completely missed these?

Suplementary question - assuming my system does not need these (e.g. the
pre-conditions for these patches do not exist) would it do any harm if I
install these anyway?

Thanks for any pointers.

It turns out all the security patches were installed. Something not
quite right with 'WinVulSca.exe'. Binned already.

 

[Jean Rosenfeld]

Use either Belarc Advisor

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

or MS Baseline security analyser

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...AF-9DBE-4DCE-889E-ECF997EB18E9&displaylang=en

 

[occam]

Thanks, I'll check out those - at least the second option. I'm a bit
wary of third party stuff, after the last episode.

occam

 

[Jean Rosenfeld]

Belarc is completely safe. Tells you a great deal about software installed,
etc.