Says KB update pulled to add more infomation
Microsoft explained this afternoon why it issued a Windows Update, and then promptly pulled it, after blog reports raised questions about the update’s legitimacy.
KB 976902, described as an anti-piracy update, was released Tuesday, the same day Windows 7 Service Pack 1 release candidate became available. Yet KB 976902 did not have the customary attached “KB article,” describing the properties and purpose of the update. Well, that prompted considerable speculation about whether Microsoft was trying to slip one past us. The Web site TechARP described KB 976902 as the first mandatory anti-piracy update after previous versions were voluntary, meaning you could elect to apply them or not.
“This new update weighs in at a relatively hefty 10.2 MB, so it probably does more than just scan your Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 installation,” TechARP reported, also expressing skepticism that KB 976902 was a precursor update to Service Pack 1, noting that what little documentation Microsoft provided stated that the update cannot be removed once it is applied. TechARP then passed on further speculation from “some folks … that it may also be some kind of spyware.”
In fairness to TechARP, message boards and other places in the blogosphere also were buzzing about this. This post from KrebsOnSecurity tries to put things into perspective.
Adding to the mystery, though, Microsoft today abruptly pulled KB 976902 altogether from Windows Update.
Microsoft replied to my queries with a prepared statement saying, basically, “We messed up,” but that there was nothing nefarious about its behavior:
“This update was prematurely released in English and the KB article had not been published yet. We are in the process of releasing the KB article so users have more information about the update.”
“[KB976902] is required if you are installing the RC for Windows 7 SP1,” Microsoft continued. “It’s a servicing stack, similar to ones we’ve released for past service packs since the Vista time frame and the servicing stacks that users install with IE9 platform previews.”
In other words, “Nothing to see here. Move along.”
Now that we’ve had our scare, Happy Halloween!
