Something wrong with Office Update?

[PeroB]

Here is the situation: I am running MS Office 2003 SP3 on Windows XP
Professional SP2. When I go to Office Update site, among the others following
updates are listed as needed for my installation:
KB943983 Security Update for MS Office Word 2003 (MS08-009)
KB943985 Security Update for MS Office Excel 2003 (MS08-014)
KB945185 Security Update for MS Office 2003 (MS08-013)
KB946254 Security Update for MS Office pUblisher 2003 (MS08-012)
KB947355 Security Update for MS Office 2003 (MS08-016)

Now problem is that coresponding Security Bulletins for all these updates
list MS Office 2003 with SP3 as non-affected software. So why would I need
them if I have MS Office 2003 with SP3 already?
As far as I can see there are several possible reasons for this:
- something is wrong with my copy of SP3,
- Office Update engine has some sort of error,
- MS Security Bulletins incorrectly list MS Office 2003 with SP3 as
non-affected software or
- something else altogether

My copy of SP3 file has details as follows:
Name: Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe
Version: 11.0.8173
Build date: 27 July 2007
Size: 117 MB (123,368,360 bytes)

Any ideas, suggestions, etc, will be appreciated.

 

[dgmacmi]

Here is the situation: I am running MS Office 2003 SP3 on Windows XP
Professional SP2. When I go to Office Update site, among the others
following
updates are listed as needed for my installation:
KB943983 Security Update for MS Office Word 2003 (MS08-009)
KB943985 Security Update for MS Office Excel 2003 (MS08-014)
KB945185 Security Update for MS Office 2003 (MS08-013)
KB946254 Security Update for MS Office pUblisher 2003 (MS08-012)
KB947355 Security Update for MS Office 2003 (MS08-016)

Now problem is that coresponding Security Bulletins for all these updates
list MS Office 2003 with SP3 as non-affected software. So why would I need
them if I have MS Office 2003 with SP3 already?
As far as I can see there are several possible reasons for this:
- something is wrong with my copy of SP3,
- Office Update engine has some sort of error,
- MS Security Bulletins incorrectly list MS Office 2003 with SP3 as
non-affected software or
- something else altogether

My copy of SP3 file has details as follows:
Name: Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe
Version: 11.0.8173
Build date: 27 July 2007
Size: 117 MB (123,368,360 bytes)

Any ideas, suggestions, etc, will be appreciated.

The update offer is for cleanup. While Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 is
correctly listed as not effected, the update has newer file versions of some
of the files you may have installed.

Suggest you install to update your file versions.

Don

 

[Char48]

Something is wrong with those March updates:
I had usede M<icrosoft CleanUp Utility to de-install my Office 2003 Pro,
reinstalled it, applied manually SP 1 , 2 and 3. Checked the languages
registry I had installed support to ALL languages from my WinXP Pro CD. And
those updates remain to get 0x80070663 error message.
The weird side: another PC of mine, identical in hardware and that I had
cloned drive C when I started it from this other, does the updates normally.
Mine has just I as user, the "good" one has all family :5 users. Try to
understand...

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Pero,

Are you using Office Update or Microsoft Update
http://update.microsoft.com ?

Do you get the same result on both?

Are there any other 2003 products listed in Add/Remove Programs in the Windows control panel?

Have you restarted the PC and rechecked for updates?

Do the file versions installed on your PC after applying Office 2003 Service Pack 3 match or exceed the SP3 version numbers listed
here?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821549/en-us?FR=1

=============
Here is the situation: I am running MS Office 2003 SP3 on Windows XP
Professional SP2. When I go to Office Update site, among the others following
updates are listed as needed for my installation:
KB943983 Security Update for MS Office Word 2003 (MS08-009)
KB943985 Security Update for MS Office Excel 2003 (MS08-014)
KB945185 Security Update for MS Office 2003 (MS08-013)
KB946254 Security Update for MS Office pUblisher 2003 (MS08-012)
KB947355 Security Update for MS Office 2003 (MS08-016)

Now problem is that coresponding Security Bulletins for all these updates
list MS Office 2003 with SP3 as non-affected software. So why would I need
them if I have MS Office 2003 with SP3 already?
As far as I can see there are several possible reasons for this:
- something is wrong with my copy of SP3,
- Office Update engine has some sort of error,
- MS Security Bulletins incorrectly list MS Office 2003 with SP3 as
non-affected software or
- something else altogether

My copy of SP3 file has details as follows:
Name: Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe
Version: 11.0.8173
Build date: 27 July 2007
Size: 117 MB (123,368,360 bytes)

Any ideas, suggestions, etc, will be appreciated. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[PeroB]

dgmacmi wrote:

"The update offer is for cleanup. While Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 is
correctly listed as not affected, the update has newer file versions of some
of the files you may have installed."

If this is the case shouldn't there be some sort of notice included in the
relevant Security Bulletins? Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning what you
have said; perhaps you have some info not available to the general public.


Bob, thanks for the reply and suggestions.
Normally I am using Office Update only. To answer your question I have
checked Microsoft Update and got exactly the same updates as from the Office
Update.
Apart from Office Professional 2003 I only have MS Visio Office Professional
2003 installed on my system and they are listed in Add/Remove Programs as
they should be. FYI, Visio has SP3 applied as well.
Yes, I always restart my PC after applying major updates such as service
packs. And yes, all relevant files do have proper version numbers for an SP3
installation. I always check that to make sure SP was properly applied.

As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with my installation. Just to
make sure this is what I did. I took a spare PC and created a clean Windows
XP SP2 install with nothing but OS, device drivers and MS Office Professional
2003 SP3. And again I've got those same updates as on the other PC. With two
different hardware platforms (Intel Core2 on Intel based motherboard and AMD
64X2 on nVidia based motherboard) and different software packages installed I
am still getting the same results.

To sum it up, I will wait a bit and see if MS is either to offer ver.2 of
these updates or add/correct affected/non-affected sections of the
corresponding security bulletins.

 

[dgmacmi]

dgmacmi wrote:

"The update offer is for cleanup. While Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 is
correctly listed as not affected, the update has newer file versions of
some
of the files you may have installed."

If this is the case shouldn't there be some sort of notice included in the
relevant Security Bulletins? Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning what
you
have said; perhaps you have some info not available to the general public.


Bob, thanks for the reply and suggestions.
Normally I am using Office Update only. To answer your question I have
checked Microsoft Update and got exactly the same updates as from the
Office
Update.
Apart from Office Professional 2003 I only have MS Visio Office
Professional
2003 installed on my system and they are listed in Add/Remove Programs as
they should be. FYI, Visio has SP3 applied as well.
Yes, I always restart my PC after applying major updates such as service
packs. And yes, all relevant files do have proper version numbers for an
SP3
installation. I always check that to make sure SP was properly applied.

As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with my installation. Just to
make sure this is what I did. I took a spare PC and created a clean
Windows
XP SP2 install with nothing but OS, device drivers and MS Office
Professional
2003 SP3. And again I've got those same updates as on the other PC. With
two
different hardware platforms (Intel Core2 on Intel based motherboard and
AMD
64X2 on nVidia based motherboard) and different software packages
installed I
am still getting the same results.

To sum it up, I will wait a bit and see if MS is either to offer ver.2 of
these updates or add/correct affected/non-affected sections of the
corresponding security bulletins.

Sorry, I was incomplete.

See FAQ in:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-014.mspx

Don

 

[PeroB]

dgmacmi, thanks for the reply and clarification.

My bad, I wasn't patient enough to read all the info supplied in the
security bulletins. However, I still find it confusing and contradicting
especially this part:

"Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 is not impacted by the security
vulnerabilities documented in this bulletin. However, users will still be
offered this update because the update files for Microsoft Office 2003
Service Pack 3 are newer (with higher version numbers) than the files that
are currently on your system."

By the way, this paragraph is common for all the updates in question.

Excuse me but I do have a bit of problem with this explanation. You can't
say that your system is not affected in one line and then say the opposite in
the next. It would be pretty much the same as saying that "there is nothing
wrong with your system but you still have to repair it". Either your system
is OK and needs no repair or it is not OK and needs to be repaired.

If I do have SP3 applied (which I do) why would the files still had lower
version numbers? Version numbers of the files on my system match those listed
on page "How to check the version of Office 2003 products"
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821549/en-us?FR=1). With this in mind, and
if explanation from the FAQ is correct, I do not need these updates. If this
is true then above mentioned paragraph from the relevant FAQ sections is
incorrect and misleading and should either be rephrased or removed
altogether.

The way I read all this is that MS Office 2003 SP3 is, in one way or
another, impacted by the security vulnerabilities documented in the relevant
bulletins and therefore should be removed from the list of non-affected
software. If this is not the case then reasons as to why these updates are
still needed for Office 2003 SP3 as specified in the FAQ sections should be
rephrased to reflect the actual situation and avoid possible confusion.

English is not my native language so I just might be reading all this in a
wrong way. My apology if this is the case.


Again, I would like to thank you all for your time and effort.

 

[dgmacmi]

dgmacmi, thanks for the reply and clarification.

My bad, I wasn't patient enough to read all the info supplied in the
security bulletins. However, I still find it confusing and contradicting
especially this part:

"Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 is not impacted by the security
vulnerabilities documented in this bulletin. However, users will still be
offered this update because the update files for Microsoft Office 2003
Service Pack 3 are newer (with higher version numbers) than the files that
are currently on your system."

By the way, this paragraph is common for all the updates in question.

Excuse me but I do have a bit of problem with this explanation. You can't
say that your system is not affected in one line and then say the opposite
in
the next. It would be pretty much the same as saying that "there is
nothing
wrong with your system but you still have to repair it". Either your
system
is OK and needs no repair or it is not OK and needs to be repaired.

If I do have SP3 applied (which I do) why would the files still had lower
version numbers? Version numbers of the files on my system match those
listed
on page "How to check the version of Office 2003 products"
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821549/en-us?FR=1). With this in mind,
and
if explanation from the FAQ is correct, I do not need these updates. If
this
is true then above mentioned paragraph from the relevant FAQ sections is
incorrect and misleading and should either be rephrased or removed
altogether.

The way I read all this is that MS Office 2003 SP3 is, in one way or
another, impacted by the security vulnerabilities documented in the
relevant
bulletins and therefore should be removed from the list of non-affected
software. If this is not the case then reasons as to why these updates are
still needed for Office 2003 SP3 as specified in the FAQ sections should
be
rephrased to reflect the actual situation and avoid possible confusion.

English is not my native language so I just might be reading all this in a
wrong way. My apology if this is the case.


Again, I would like to thank you all for your time and effort.

You are assuming that English is Microsoft's native language.

Office 2003 with SP3 is not vulnerable to the security threat documented in
the bulletin. Not all files contained in the update apply to Office 2003.
What Microsoft is trying to say {as I read between the lines} is that some
of the files contained in the update that do apply to Office 2003 with SP3
are newer versions of the same files that were supplied with SP3. What
Microsoft appears to be trying to do is cleanup Office 2003 with SP3 by
supplying the latest version of these files.

I have no connection with Microsoft so I do not know what was changed in
these files. Perhaps nothing more than removing some crud that was left in
the files when SP3 was released.

Don