System Administration

Release Early and Whatever

Has anybody else noticed that the release dates and the timestamps on Microsoft's hotfixes don't match up?

bash-2.05a$ ls -ltr *[sSpP]4*
-rw-r--r--    1 wcox     wcox       194600 Jul 16  2002 Q320206_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-r--r--    1 wcox     wcox       208360 Jul 16  2002 Q321599_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       234368 Jul 17  2002 Q324380_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       219296 Jul 24  2002 Q326830_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       247488 Jul 25  2002 Q326886_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       337544 Aug  5  2002 q323172_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       871904 Aug 16  2002 Q324096_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       896960 Sep 11  2002 Q323255_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox      2750240 Sep 17  2002 Q327696_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       196200 Oct  2  2002 Q329834_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox      1194096 Nov  1 17:30 Q329170_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox      3836528 Nov  1 20:03 Q328310_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox      7590000 Nov 13 20:57 Q329115_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox      1435760 Nov 20 18:54 Q331953_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       373360 Nov 21 18:56 Q810833_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox       414736 Mar 14 23:53 Q815021_W2K_sp4_x86_EN.EXE
-rw-rw-r--    1 wcox     wcox      2424336 Mar 17 22:42 Q816093_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe

Take MS03-010 (Q331953) for example. The page that links to the download notes that the filename is Q331953_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe, that the size is 1403 KB, and that it was published on March 26, 2003. Yet the file that I picked up is dated November 20, 2002. And it was signed on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 7:54:21 PM. Does somebody need to synchronize his clock?

I got all of those files with wget, from the various places linked to in the security bulletins. Course, now I'm having trouble authenticating to SAMBA, but that's a whole 'nother bucket of worms.

7:55:36 PM # Google It!
categories: Dear Microsoft, Security, System Administration