Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/06/05/outlook_love_bug_patch_still/

Outlook Love Bug patch still mysteriously missing

How long does it take to pour quick-set over attachments anyway?

By Graham Lea

Posted in On-Prem, 5th June 2000 10:11 GMT

Users are still waiting for a fix for MS Outlook after the ravages from the ILOVEYOU, Melissa and related viruses. Microsoft is itself in a bit of a fix here; having pushed the idea of attachments, a security fix based on blocking all attachments seems like a massive climb-down.

But on the other hand, what else could you do? Microsoft initially announced a patch that would drastically curtail Outlook's ability to deal with attachments, but for some reason, it hasn't actually got it out the door yet. It's been delayed several times already, and it's not clear when it will actually ship - or indeed, what it will actually be.

Meanwhile, the Microsoft's Office Update site has some extraordinary things to say about all it.

Curiously, the wording of Microsoft's announcement is in the present tense: the security update "puts you back in control of your software", despite the fix being "available soon" (this week is the latest rumour); it will provide "unprecedented security". Microsoft says that "malicious hackers have abused legitimate Outlook functionality". The company goes on to say that the bug fix ("update") was "not created to address a security vulnerability within Outlook". So why a "security update", then? The thinking seems to be that Outlook is perfectly safe if people behave themselves, but that the patch provides "unprecedented security protection" because there are people around who want to spoil things for everybody.

Microsoft is having to incorporate a number of restrictions on functionality, to change default settings, and even more difficult, to persuade users to download the bug fix and install it. It's unrealistic to expect many users to do this, especially as the documentation available so far is daunting. The chances of the right security decisions being made will not be particularly high in many cases, in view of the level of knowledge required to do this correctly. ®