On the first day of Christmas, MS gave to me, an emergency out-of-band security patch for IE

The Register ^ | Dec 19, 2018 | Chris Williams

[dayglored]

Get patchin', everybody...

[dayglored]

Using IE? Better patch this one ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

[Pearls Before Swine]

How many people still use IE?

[dayglored]

BTW, the original headline spelled out “Microsoft”, but “MS” let it fit into the thread title limit...

[T-Bird45]

Is this what caused a hands-off update/re-start on my Surface Pro a couple of hours ago??

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Lots.

[dayglored]

> How many people still use IE?

Actually, quite a few. The new "Edge" browser isn't winning many fans, and a lot of folks have used IE for ages and it's deep in their comfort zone.

[dayglored]

> Is this what caused a hands-off update/re-start on my Surface Pro a couple of hours ago??

That would not surprise me.

[Revel]

Anyone with any smarts does not use Internet Explorer. If you don’t use it then there is no worry.

[Paladin2]

M$ would fit too.

[DannyTN]

On the second day of Christmas Microsoft gave to me:
2 blue screens of death and
an emergency out of band security patch for IE.

[Dr. Sivana]

A LOT of corporate stuff still REQUIRES it.

[mabarker1]

I get whatever “Package HDW/SW” comes on the Machine is what I’m stuck with. If the rest of the world would hang back with Me in the Land-O-DOS6.0 or DOS6.2 OS and DotMatrix LPT the world would be in better shape.

< SIGH > Alas I conform as needed minimally. < /SIGH >

So I’m stuck with: 1 Box WIN7, 1 LT WIN8, 1 Box Vista, 2 Android Phones, 2 iPhones, 1 Android Tablet, 1 HP2430 Inkjet Printer/Scanner/Fax/Ink Funnel that must be Printing on Every piece of Paper on Earth EXCEPT MY PAPERS and one Old Hand Cranked Pencil Sharper with a dead 9 volt battery taped to it for effects.

[TheCipher]

An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user

Which is why you should never be operating your computer under an Administrator Account. You should create a Standard User account to operate under and only use the Administrator account when needed to install software.

[grey_whiskers]

[catnipman]

“How many people still use IE?”

~7-15% IE & Edge combined

[ImpBill]

Are you actually insinuating there are still people around using IE?

News for all of them - you don’t need a patch, you need an intervention.

[ImpBill]

Needs to be repeated at least one more if not a dozen more times.

"...you should never be operating your computer under an Administrator Account. You should create a Standard User account to operate under and only use the Administrator account when needed to install software."

[trebb]

IE has been the de facto standard for a while - companies that use Windows platforms, like the government, won’t let users install other programs and focus their business around the built-in platforms....

[bigbob]

Avoid, of course.