• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 14

  April 11, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  There are a bunch of nips and tucks for the IBM i operating system in this week’s edition of the IBM i PTF Guide, but nothing that will keep you awake at night as sometimes happen on all platforms in the enterprise.

  If you are running encryption on your backups, you may want to take a look at this link. The issue is that tape processing fails if the QTADECRYPT data area is found in QUSRSYS and if the keystore file listed in the QTADECRYPT data area is missing from the system. All current releases – IBM i …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 13

  April 4, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  There is not much to write about this week, with lots of people on various holidays and breaks around the world. There is a new MQ Series group (SF99859), plus new HIPER, Security, BRMS, and Hardware groups this week. After the last couple months of announcements and the Spectre/Meltdown speculative execution security vulnerabilities, IBM is catching up on fixes. Good stuff!

  As for the Spectre/Meltdown update, there is nothing new to report, I just didn’t want to write it out too quick – things like this come back to haunt you if you are not careful. . . .

  I …

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• IBM Patches Another BIND Flaw In IBM i

  March 28, 2018 Alex Woodie

  A serious flaw has been discovered in the BIND networking service that could be used to launch a denial of service attack against impacted servers, including IBM i. IBM patched the flaw in every version of the OS from IBM i 6.1 to 7.3 with a program temporary fix (PTF) made available earlier this month. IBM also patched a serious flaw in WebSphere that could let information leak out.

  According to the IBM security bulletin issued March 12, the ISC BIND flaw known as CVE-2017-3145 has the potential to allow a remote attacker to crash a vulnerable server by sending …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 12

  March 28, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  After the last couple months of announcements and Spectre/Meltdown (SM) mayhem, IBM is catching up on fixes. This week we have new HIPERs, Security, BRMS, and Hardware groups this week.

  Speaking of Spectre and Meltdown, there is no new news or updates, but IBM has finally merged the SM PTFs into the normal “Group” methodology we work with every week. So, to get current on SM for your appropriate release apply the below levels (or higher):

  	7.1 Groups	7.2 Groups	7.3 Groups
  Tech Refresh	N/A	SF99717-008	SF99727-004
  Security	SF99708-079	SF99718-059	SF99728-024
  HIPER	SF99709-217	SF99719-116	SF99729-053

  March 24, 2018: Volume …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 11

  March 21, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  New cumes!! V7R3 and V7R2 both have new cumulative PTF groups this week. This effectively correlates the roll-up of the Spectre and Meltdown patches into a traditional apply methodology. Check our PTF Guide for the latest activity on both Spectre and Meltdown and your applicable release. In a nutshell, loading the latest cume and groups gets you protected at the LIC and OS levels. For firmware, you still need to determine and address separately.

  Also, read the cover letter for the cume carefully — if you are running PowerHa or Content Manager, there are “things” you need to be aware …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 10

  March 14, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  The good times keep on rolling with the Spectre Meltdown (SM) updates. There are new HIPER and Security Groups this week, and most of the required PTFs are on one group or the other, except for one in each release. If you need to tackle it this week, the recommendation is to apply both the HIPER and Security groups, plus the one additional fix, for each release.

  Depending on your system and its proc/mem configuration, it will take from 15 minutes to 30 minutes longer to apply the Tech Refresh.

  MQ for IBM i also has a new Group level …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 9

  March 7, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  More Breaking News! Yes, it is Spectre and Meltdown update time once again. The firmware issued for certain systems causes V6R1M1 to have an IPL failure. Check the worksheet in the IBM i PTF Guide and see this link.

  The V7R2 recommended fixes for Temporary Disk Space have something worth looking at, which is MF64483 and which was released on March 1. Apparently, this has to do with tracking and curbing temporary disk space growth.

  One last thing. the Spectre and Meltdown speculative execution security vulnerabilities have been classified by IBM’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) as having …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 7

  February 21, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  This is our latest Spectre and Meltdown (SM) speculative execution security vulnerabilities update. We finally got the straight answer on firmware to models from IBM. We have updated the SM worksheet in the IBM i PTF Guide to reflect what we have learned. Just a reminder, the Spectre and Meltdown speculative execution security vulnerabilities have been classified by IBM’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) as having a “High Severity” level.

  There are no changes to the PTF Groups this week. I suspect the Power9 announcement and Tech Refreshes have kept everyone busy.

  Here is a rundown on the IBM …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 5

  February 7, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  Just a reminder, the Spectre and Meltdown speculative execution security vulnerabilities have been classified by IBM’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) as having a “High Severity” level. As far as the Spectre and Meltdown issues go, there is nothing new on the IBM i, Power Systems, or Hardware Management Console (HMC) front. It is what it is.

  The HIPER and Security groups for each release were re-released two weeks ago, but only the first of each set below is included in the Security group. So, if you order and download the latest HIPERs and Security groups, you only get …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 4, The Spectre Of Meltdowns

  January 31, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  As we have pointed out, the Spectre and Meltdown speculative execution security vulnerabilities have been classified by IBM’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) as having a “High Severity” level.

  This week’s update is somewhat chilling. IBM announced additional PTFs to be fully protected, meaning you have to do both, and also do the firmware fix.

  But wait, there’s more. . . . The HIPER and Security groups for each release were re-released over the weekend, but only the first of each set below is included in the Security group. So, if you order and download the latest HIPERs …

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