Hey folks - Mike Reavey here. Recently, some folks have asked us if there’s a new security update in MSN Messenger. In doing some investigation, we’ve realized that these questions might be coming in because the “Date Published” on this page on our Download Center: shows it was published last Tuesday. Because of that it does look like there may be a new security issue in MSN Messenger 6.2. This download page is associated with the update referenced in MS05-009, published on February 8, 2005. The date change is the result of some benign text changes on the site itself and doesn’t reflect any change in the software update. The update code is the same code as has been on that site for some time, and there are no new security issues in MSN Messenger 6. 2 Folks who applied this update back in February are protected from the original issue, and don’t need to do anything else. In fact, the MSN Messenger service actually requires that folks have this update installed before they login to the MSN Messenger service, so most of you have probably already applied this update. Or, if you’re using the latest version of MSN Messenger, 7.0, it also includes protection from the vulnerability in MS05-009.
So what changed on this page? Because of the way our internal publishing tools function, the “Date Published” on this page is updated any time any change is made. This includes textual changes. For example, this Tuesday we updated some links and text on this page for localization issues, which then refreshed the date to 5/17/2005.
Your next question is probably, “How do I know if, when, and why an update changes if the date changes on this page for every little thing?” Every Security Bulletinhas a full list, with a revision-log, of any changes to either the text of the security bulletin, or packages referenced with a security bulletin. Also, if you want to be notified proactively for any of these changes, you can sign-up to receive the comprehensive version of our Security Notification Service. It’ll E-mail you when minor or major content changes occur with a security update.
I hope this helps clear up any questions folks may have around this issue!
-Mike
*This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.*