WinXP SP2 = security placebo?

Great info in there. Thanks Ronjor.

 

Hey guys,

I think SP2 is a huge improvement for the security of the average Windows user. The Register has always been alarmist and I think this article is no exception. Thomas Greene is wanting Microsoft to harden the OS to where the average user would be completely lost - creating an end-user nightmare.

Just take one of his points: He laments the fact that SP2 does not have outbound protection in the new Windows Firewall. True, many predicted it would. However, I am sure that Microsoft ultimately decided that the end-user would be totally lost and it would create such a confusion as to render the trade off useless. We don't give it a second thought when using our firewalls because we all have a common interest in computer security - at the geek level - okay? Imagine Joe and Mary Blow sitting at their computer and seeing "Do you want _____(fill in the blank) to access the Internet?" From the printer spool to the svchost to all the update engines - Joe and Mary would be crying at their complete inability to know the difference from something "good" to something "bad" wanting access to the Internet. As much as I hate to say it - for people like the Blow family - Microsoft did the right thing by not creating the chaotic confusion that would have reigned had they enabled egress filtering.

Likewise, many of the other things mentioned in Greene's article sound good in theory, but if applied in default with Windows, would create as many problems as it attempted to solve.

Just a different spin on SP2, which I think makes some real strides in the right direction in defaulting Windows - for the average user - to a more secure system.

John
Luv2BSecure

 

Interesting article, but can someone please explain to me how to disable all that stuff on Win98 SE? Isn't there software like Safe XP for example that takes care of that?

 

I think there's growing agreement that while SP2 does include a very few new exploit-fixes (I think), it's primarily aimed at the unfortunately fairly large number of users who haven't a clue where to start with even basic protection. And for them, a little security is better than none.

 

Hi Rasheed,

I would go to GRC.com and check out the Network Bondage article.
It lists important networking configuration instructions for 98.

 

Why can we build hightech cars that can be driven by everyone?

 

Well, I know that as soon as I connect to the net ports 137, 138 and 139 all become active, that are the NetBIOS ports. I want to shut them down, I had already disabled DCOM with Safe XP.

I'm not worried about the firewall and IE's configuration stuff since I I use ZA Pro and I have configured IE in the most secure way, with a lot disabled (except javascript, only sometimes) but that's one of the biggest problems of course.

 

The Gibson article covers the safe way to configure NetBIOS (File and printer sharing) for Windows 98.

Windows Networking 101
Network Bondage

 

I disabled netbios the way grc described and still not experiencing any issues yet.

I believe in this sp2 to be honest. a lot less hits by my antispyware utilities that is for sure...

 

is it just me, or since installing sp2 has the whole startup and shutdown process taken a significantly longer time??

 

I believe it is just you


browsing is a lot faster. but no slowdowns on startup noticeable here...

(glad for that)

 

Hello mr burns,

2nd INFINITY's experience, my system just runs better overall and no slowdowns on startups/shutdowns.

Aside from the "usual suspects" on slow boot, a possible SP2 reason may be Automatic Updates. From what I've read - can't find the reference at the moment - AU wants to connect to MS servers right off the bat and if they are busy, may slow the system down - don't know what the time out factor would be. Don't use AU myself, so can't make any judgements.

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks for the links Devinco, I will check them out.