Microsoft doing their own SpywareBlasting?

See the following recent Microsoft update, marked as 'critical'.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-023.mspx

 

Hi,

In that update (and in previous updates in the past), Microsoft has used kill bits to prevent ActiveX controls in their products (and in third-party products) from being instantiated in Internet Explorer. Often they've either blocked ActiveX controls that simply aren't meant to be used in Internet Explorer (i.e. helping mitigate the possible effects of any future security problems that might be discovered), or that are older and have known security holes present.

In the case of the third-party ActiveX controls that are blocked, I'm fairly certain that Microsoft does this in concert with the maker of the control. (i.e. This allows the maker to take advantage of Microsoft's large Windows Update reach to hopefully prevent security holes in their older software from being exploited, if users don't keep all of their third-party software up-to-date.)

Best regards,

-Javacool