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Patch Fixes Vulnerability in Web Access Service of Exchange 5.5

Yesterday was "Patch Tuesday," Microsoft's once-a-month patch issuing day, and the only patch issued was for the Web Access service of Exchange Server 5.5. The patch, issued with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-026, closes a cross-site scripting and spoofing vulnerability in Exchange Server 5.5 that could allow an attacker to convince a user to run a malicious script, Microsoft says. The company rated this as a "moderate" vulnerability; it does not affect newer versions of Exchange.

Microsoft Issues Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer

Microsoft released a cumulative patch for three critical flaws in Internet Explorer 10 days ago, more than a week before "Patch Tuesday," the company's monthly patch issuing day. The patch addresses the Download.Ject Trojan horse vulnerability, which emerged earlier this summer. Web servers infected with Download.Ject would pass the Trojan horse on to PCs running IE 5.5. The cumulative patch is intended to replace another cumulative patch issued earlier this year and is discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-025. The out-of-season patch reflects the severity that Microsoft attributes to the Download.Ject vulnerability.

Is Internet Explorer 7.0 on the Horizon?

Is Microsoft ramping up for development of Internet Explorer 7? With some IT leaders calling for a boycott of Microsoft's ubiquitous Web browser, over security shortcomings in IE found on a seemingly weekly basis, some people are speculating that a major refresh of IE could soon be on the drawing board for the world's most successful software company. There is evidence of an IE push at Microsoft. Among other moves, Microsoft is more active in soliciting feedback on IE, and has reportedly moved an executive from its "Longhorn" team to the IE team, in addition to advertising for browser developers. While major improvements could be made in its security, IE also has some room for improvement in other departments. For example, there are many features that are common in other browsers, but not in IE, which owns more than a 90 percent share of the browser market. Tabbed browsing, for example, and full support for cascading style sheets are standard features in other browsers, but are are not supported in IE.

Microsoft Releases New Toolkits for SharePoint Portal Server

Microsoft this week announced two new toolkits designed to help its SharePoint Portal Server 2003 users to integrate data from third-party applications, such as a target="new" href="http://www.sap.com">SAP, using XML and other Web services standards. The first toolkit, called WSRP Web Part Toolkit for SharePoint Products and Technologies, uses the Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) OASIS standard, to build portlets that interact with other portals regardless of technology. A second product, called the Web Part Toolkit for SharePoint Products and Technologies for SAP iViews, makes it easy to display SAP NetWeaver iViews using Microsoft's portal software.

Microsoft Certifies IONA's Artix Integration Software

IONA Technologies' Artix Web services software has successfully completed testing by Microsoft and has been awarded the Microsoft .NET Connected Logo. Iona says that its Artix technology lets independent software vendors easily connect business applications that have been developed with Microsoft development tools, run on the Microsoft platform, and use Microsoft protocols, using a service-oriented-architecture approach. IONA develops integration software and is located in Dublin, Ireland, and Waltham, Massachusetts.

Sybase Releases 4GL Tool for .NET Framework

Sybase this week released DataWindow .NET, a fourth generation language (4GL) development tool built on Microsoft's .NET Framework. The Dublin, California, software company says that the new tool gives developers a single tool for incorporating data access, complex logic, and data presentation into .NET applications that are built with Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET, Borland's C# Builder, or any other development environment that supports the Microsoft .NET Framework.