Security Administrator Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to CompTIA Security+™ Skills, Third Edition

Task 2.3: Patching the Operating System

Many appraisals of operating systems and applications estimate that there are typically somewhere between 10 and 50 bugs (vulnerabilities) per 1,000 lines of code. Windows XP has an estimated 40 million lines of code, and Windows 7 and Windows Vista reportedly have approximately 50 million lines of code. These bugs are doorways for attackers to take control of your systems, potentially compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your information services. As these bugs are discovered and reported, the software vendors produce patches to correct the vulnerability. This translates to the need for a diligent and continuous patching routine to minimize the potential exposure of these vulnerabilities ...