Less Patch Scope == Faster Response

Wow, it seems Microsoft managed to get their MS06-015 cumulative IE patch rolled out with only a few compatibility problems with older HP, NVIDIA, Siebel and Kerio Firewall products. Pretty good given the non-security ActiveX change they bundled in there.

Oh, they also fixed that security vulnerability that was activley exploited in the wild since March 23rd. Now given the lag time in patch deployment (current research suggests 19 days for internal machines), it should just be just over a month that attackers have been able to wade through the average windows box.

Can someone tell me why Microsoft decided that the best way to get a patch out as quickly as possible was to bundle a huge, non-security modificcation into it?

Posted by Dominic White