Microsoft re-released KB908531 on April 25 2006 - a security patch that had been issued just 14 days earlier in the company's monthly Patch Tuesday schedule.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-015 (KB908531)

Vulnerability in Windows Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution

Published: April 11, 2006 and Updated: April 25, 2006

An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.

If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

HOWEVER

The original patch issued just 14 days ago had a negative impact on some users of Windows XP.

If you have experienced any of the following issues since April 11th 2006 then I recommend that you delete the old security patch and install the newly available one from Microsoft!

# You cannot access special folders such as "My Documents" or "My Pictures."

# Microsoft Office applications stop responding when you try to save or to open Office files in the "My Documents" folder.

# Office files that are located in the "My Documents" folder cannot be opened.

# If you open a file by clicking Open on the File menu, the application stops responding.

# When you type an address in the Address box in Microsoft Internet Explorer and you then press ENTER or you click Go, nothing happens.

# When you right-click a file and then click Send To, nothing happens.

# When you expand a folder in Windows Explorer, nothing happens.

# Some third-party applications stop responding when you open or save data in the �My Documents� folder.

How Do I Re-Install The Patch?

On the START menu select CONTROL PANEL

In the CONTROL PANEL select ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS

Making sure SHOW UPDATES is ticked

Look for the entry: Security Update For Windows XP (KB908531)

SELECT IT and now click the REMOVE IT button.

If you have automatic updates switched on the patch should be automatically downloaded and installed depending on your settings. See this article for more information:

http://www.updatexp.com/windows-automatic-updates.html

...or you can visit the Windows Update site and manually download the file:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=21130

...Help That Did Not Work!

There is an unofficial fix that has been available in many of the online newsgroups:

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1. Close any open windows.

2. Go into Task Manager and kill any processes called verclsid.exe

3. Go into the c:\windows\system32 folder (on a WinXP machine, where c:\windows is the drive where windows is installed).

4. Make sure that file extensions can be seen (Tools, Folder Options, View tab, Hide extensions for known file types off, click OK).

5. Scroll down to the file named verclsid.exe and rename it to verclsid.old.

6. Change the option back for file extensions to not be shown (if you want).

7. Voil�, everything works again.

"I guess you could have just have deleted the verclsid.exe file, but I don't know if we will need to change it back eventually when whatever is wrong is fixed."

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What Caused All The problems To Start With?

Microsoft are saying the problems with this patch are NOT with the patch itself BUT are caused by computers with older versions of HP Share-to-Web software, nVidia graphics drivers, and the Kerio Personal Firewall.

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This page was last updated 26th April 2005

KB908531

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