I got an unusual message from Microsoft
(windowssecurity@email.microsoft.com) that starts out with
>*** PLEASE NOTE: Due to the critical importance of this
message, this communication is being sent to all of our
Microsoft customers to alert you of this Security
Bulletin. ***
I have asked a number of people whether they also got this
message - none have seen it. The message goes on:
>It has been widely reported in the press and on
Microsoft's own web site, that on July 16th we released a
critical security bulletin (MS03-026) and a patch
regarding a vulnerability in the Windows operating system.
We wanted to make sure that if you were not aware of this
bulletin and corresponding patch that you take a moment to
go to http://www.microsoft.com/security/
security_bulletins/ms03-026.asp to find out if you are
running an affected version of the Windows operating
system and get the specific information as to what you
need to do to apply this patch if you have not already.
>Although we encourage you to pay attention to all
security bulletins and to deploy patches in a timely
manner we wanted to call special attention to this
particular instance as we have become aware of some
activity on the internet that we believe increases the
likelihood of the exploitation of this vulnerability.
=============
I followed the instructions, downloaded and installed all
the patches (Win2000, IE affected) and now EVERY SINGLE
EMAIL ATTACHMENT IS BLOCKED BY OUTLOOK EXPRESS, its
filename replaced with
OE removed access to the following unsafe attachments in
your mail:
The message from "Microsoft" ends with
>We apologize for any inconvenience the implementation of
this patch might cause and appreciate you taking the time
to update your system.
According to the message header, the message was sent by
Digital Impact, which is known to do bulk mailing on
behalf of Microsoft.
Does anybody know anything about this? And How do I get my
email attachments back???
Thanks in advance.
WK