Windows 2003 SP1 locks the door on install

Published Fri, Apr 1 2005 7:36 AM

About a year ago an article was published that an freshly installed Windows XP machine connected to the internet was infected by a virus or worm way within the hour (I think it was about 20 minutes on average). Which makes it almost impossible to install a machine and download all patches before infection strikes without precautions like disconnecting the network and installing a (closed down) firewall before reconnecting it.

Windows 2003 SP1 solves this issue by blocking all inbound traffic untill all relevant Windows Update patches are installed. That's the right way to go.

by Carlo Poli

Comments

# Carlo Poli said on Friday, April 01, 2005 8:10 AM

Definitly a serious problem! And as always, the solution a bit late! :)

# Carlo Poli said on Friday, April 01, 2005 5:00 PM

Well you could always slipstream the service packs on your install directory.....

I NEVER had any problems installing clean stuff on my computer.....

But I used Slipstreamed installations

# Carlo Poli said on Monday, April 04, 2005 1:24 PM

@Patrick

I don't think slipstreaming installations is a real solution. First of all, most installers won't use slipstreaming so they will stay vunerable. Secondly I think it will only shorten the time the system is vunerable, not completely take away the vunerability.

BTW, I never had this problem either (as far as I can see), but even if only 0,01% of the computers do have a problem we are already talking thousands at least. And thousands is a significant number when it comes to the nasty things you can do with a hacked computer.