Security Update for Windows XP KB893066

[Terry Pinnell]

Is Security Update for Windows XP (KB893066) to fix an MSIE6 problem.
Am I at risk of screwing up my XP Home SP1 system please? Following
the various links to get more details, I read a lot of stuff I don't
understand, like this:

"On computers that are running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack
1 (SP1), networking programs and tools that send manually crafted
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets over raw Internet Protocol
(IP) sockets may stop working. This behavior may also affect programs
and tools that send User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets. Network
connectivity between clients and servers may not work after the
installation of security update MS05-019 or Windows Server 2003
Service Pack 1"

While it's largely gobbledegook to me, I also would like to plug any
security loopholes, so I'd apprecaite practical advice please.

FWIW, I use Firefox as my default browser.

 

[Guest]

The patchthat you are questioning is a security patch, plugs a security hole
in IE. You use Firefox. Are you going to break your OS (Win XP Home) NO.
these are updates that Microsoft, fully tests with their software before
releasing them to the general public. You should not have to worry about
updates that are provided via windows update.

Aaron Winter

 

[Terry Pinnell]

The patchthat you are questioning is a security patch, plugs a security hole
in IE. You use Firefox. Are you going to break your OS (Win XP Home) NO.
these are updates that Microsoft, fully tests with their software before
releasing them to the general public. You should not have to worry about
updates that are provided via windows update.

Aaron Winter

Thanks. But what about those caveats MS warn about, some of which i
quoted?

 

[Jason Brown [MSFT]]

Let me put it this way - if you don't know what all that means, then (in
this specific case) you're probably not going to be affected by it.

The tools referred to in the raw sockets warning are generally very
low-level tools which use 'hack-like' low-level access to do networking
tricks you probably neither need or need to know about. 99.99% of
consumer-oriented software has no need for raw sockets, and if it does I'd
find that suspicious in itself. Some pro tools (and hacker tools) do, but by
no means all.