Though I didn’t find this weeks tips to be particularly interesting, they may be news to someone who is new to SoftGrid. Hopefully the team will keep blogging new tips every week (that would be fantastic!) Read this week’s tips on their blog entry here.
Windows 2003 Server SP2 is a critical update and will begin to be forced on June 12, 2007 via Automatic Updates (there is an opt-out though)
If you haven’t had a chance to test 2003 SP2 AND you’re configured to automatic updates, you may be interested in knowing that Microsoft has a fix that will allow your servers to bypass the forced install of 2003 SP2 that will begin on June 12th, 2007. If you’re interested in using this opt-out, visit Microsoft’s download site here for the download and instructions.
The exact reason why you should not allow PST files on the network
I’ve always known that you’re not supposed to use PST files across the network (LAN or WAN), but up until recently I did not have the specific proof as to the magnitude of problems it can cause (outside of corruption in the PST). I was recently looking for this information to pass to a client of mine, and I came across a great blog article from the Server Performance Team at Microsoft. Turns out there’s all sorts of issues from I/O deadlocking to paged pool depletion, etc. Head over their blog and view the article.
Microsoft releases out of band patch (MS07-017) for Animated Cursor vulnerability
MS07-017 is a re-release of an earlier patch against a vulnerability in Animated Cursors. Apparently when the code was created for the first fix, the rest of the code wasn’t audited and another vulnerability was recently found. The patch can be found on Microsoft’s website over here
This vulnerability affects all versions of Windows from 2000 through Vista, so you’ll definitely want to patch this one. Also, there’s at least 4-5 public exploits available for this one. You can be certain that it’s being exploited in the wild.
Jay Tomlin on availability/features of new Access Gateway Enterprise Edition firmware
Citrix has been working on a project called Timpanogos which is the feature set to bring some of the Advanced Access control features from the regular Citrix Access Gateway with AAC into the Netscaler product line (the Enterprise Edition). Jay announced availability of the 8.0 firmware that enables this feature set on the Netscaler hardware. NOTE: You will need Netscaler hardware to run this firmware.
Read Jay’s blog entry for detailed information.
The Metasploit Project has officially released version 3.0 of the Framework
The Metasploit Project has just officially released version 3.0 of the framework on their website. 3.0 is a complete rewrite of the framwork and is written in Ruby. It currently contains 177 exploits, 104 payloads, 17 encoders, and 3 nop modules. It is a fantastic tool for penetration testing, and best of all — it’s completely free.
Read their blog entry on the new of the 3.0 release here
And get yourself a copy of Metasploit 3.0 over here
Idokorro launches Citrix client for the Blackberry platform
This is beyond cool! Idokorro (makers of two other very cool products Mobile Admin and Mobile Desktop) have just launched the first public Citrix Client for the Blackberry platform. One could argue that a Citrix client on a Blackberry is not the ideal platform for getting work done, but I’ve been using it as I used the Mobile Desktop product – for on the go deperate troubleshooting (i.e. I don’t have a laptop near me, but need to get in a reboot a system, etc). Anyway, checkout their website for a download link (they even have an OTA download available from mobile.idokorro.com
On one of my Presentation Server 4.0 boxes, I’m receiving the typical TS error message that you’re not a member of the Remote Desktop Users group. This is weird since this system works perfectly fine locally as well as via WI/CSG. I’ve exchange emailed with the Idokorro folks who mentioned that they’ve seen this on about 4-5% of the downloaded installs. They are currently researching a fix and expect it to take no longer than 1-2 weeks (how’s that for support!).
UPDATE: Idokorro has released a beta client that fixes the TS error message. Contact them down a download URL.
Anyway, one of the REALLY cool things about this product is that it supports either connecting directly via TCP/IP through your carrier (for externally facing Citrix connections) or more appropriately you can tunnel through your existing BES/MDS service (which is awesome if you’re trying to fix a problem with your WI/CSG config). I just can’t speak enough about how cool this product is.
Pricing is $35 per device (which IMHO is pretty reasonable). Of course volume discounts would bring that price down.
Checkout their press release here
Enjoy!
Shawn
Microsoft Exchange Team takes a hint from Citrix’s HTML Preview functionality in AAC
Exchange 2007 Outlook Web Access includes a functionality called WebReady document viewing that functions much the same as the HTML Preview functionality in Citrix’s Advanced Access Control. Currently 2003 versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, as well as PDF document types are supported, but this this able to be customized/extended for additional document types as well. I realize that AAC provides greater control over the documents than this feature within Exchange, however it’s still a great feature to include out of the box in Exchange 2007.
Read more at the MS Exchange Team’s blog entry about WebReady document viewing
LanDesk in partnership with Thinstall?
In a recent press announcement LanDesk (makers of systems management/electronic software distribution products) has noted that they are in partnership with Thinstall. Apparently LanDesk is eager to not be the only one left out of the growing software virtualization market. Either that or they just want to make clear to everyone that they’ve still got what it takes since being taken over by a company that makes KVMs.
Thanks to dabcc.com for the news.
IIS 7.0:Explore The Web Server For Windows Vista And Beyond
MSDN has a great review up on IIS 7.0.
Some of the highlights of the new IIS 7.0:
- Lean server core component (similar to server core in Longhorn). Additional components can be enabled on an as-needed basis. This of course helps to reduce the attack surface of the server.
- No more metabase (finally!). All settings for IIS are now in an XML-based config file (much like the asp.net .config files)
- IIS Manager has been completely redone. I personally think this is a huge improvement over the old admin tool.
- Improved diagnostics and tracing facilities for quickly locating problems in your web server or application pools.
- Improved performance through caching (ASP sites are dynamic which unfortunately leads to performance issues if the content has to be generated dynamically all the time. IIS 7.0 has features that allow for output caching to reduce the amount of database calls, etc.
- Lots of other things…follow the link above for more info.
Thanks to blog.baeke.info for the link.