Microsoft's DNS Fix Leads to More Problems

The blogosphere is awash with talk about the possible overall weakness of the Domain Name System (DNS) architecture. For its part, Microsoft's released a DNS fix in its patch slate for July, but Redmond seems to have problems just getting it to end users. Moreover, some users of the DNS fix have experienced additional difficulties.

So far, since Microsoft's DNS fix was issued on July 10, there have been two separate problems associated with its installation.

The software giant disclosed last week, in a technical posting on its SBS services blog, that some users experienced interruptions in the Exchange Server services component of application stacks sitting on various Windows operating systems.

"Some customers have reported seeing random problems with services after installing MS08-037," the blog stated. MS08-037 is Microsoft's fix designed to stave off DNS cache exploits. Hackers can use this vulnerability to increase their chances of redirecting an unsuspecting user to a malicious Web site.

The blog indicated that notifications for Active Sync -- Microsoft's solution for synchronizing a mobile device with either a PC or server hardware running Exchange -- were failing. Also, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) services and Internet Authentication Services (IAS) were failing to start.