Hi, Folks!

The next builds of macOS (Mojave), iOS (12), and Win10 (1809) are all due in the next month. There’s no better time to run your backups than now. Remember: with the short release cycle of software companies today, YOU are the beta tester, so be prepared – run backups.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. Today is Patch Tuesday and it’s a big one.

The typical computer should see roughly 3.5gb in updates today. Let’s get started.

Microsoft released updates to Windows, .NET, Internet Explorer, Edge, Flash, and MSRT (~3gb). This includes security updates. A reboot is required.

Apple released macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update 2 for MacBook Pro. This is a security update. Use Apple Software Update to install these updates. A reboot is required.

Adobe Flash Player 31.0.0.108 is a security update.
Win: https://12pd.com/click?flash
Win: https://12pd.com/click?flashie
Mac: https://12pd.com/click?flashmac

Don’t forget to check your mobile devices, too! Many updates will also apply to your tablet, phone, kindle or television – so check your device-appropriate App Store and install updates.

Important Notes

Everything above this section should be checked by everyone on every computer. Chances are good that close to every single computer you touch will be affected by those updates. This is not the case with the items below, though you should still check each line item below to see if it applies to software you have installed.

macOS Mojave will be released next month so devices running El Capitan (10.11) or older will no longer be supported. Your options are to either upgrade to at least Sierra (10.12) or replace your device. Mojave will not run on all Macs, just as High Sierra and even Sierra made some devices unusable. If in doubt whether your device will be able to support an operating system upgrade, be sure to perform a full disk backup prior to upgrade. You should do this anyway, just to be safe.

iOS 12 is supposed to improve performance and battery life (we all know how well that worked in the past). This version is due within the month, so be prepared for a large download for your Apple mobile device. You might want to connect it to your mac or PC and create a backup with iTunes, too.

Windows 10 1809 is due out in October. This build adds several new features, such as multiple application tab support, integrated SSH, and improved privacy controls. It’s a huge download and if you’re running a Home version you should install it a couple weeks after it’s released to ensure that you aren’t surprised (and prevented from using your computer) when it installs automatically. Again, backups are good.

The now-current release of Windows 10 (1803) will cause your computer to feel unusually slow until it is installed. This is a side-effect of the Windows 10 upgrade cycle, which pushes out 6gb through Windows update to get you to the latest Windows 10 release every 6 months. If you don’t let it finish and you’re on a slow connection, it will kill your Internet performance forever. If you don’t have the bandwidth to download the bits, I’m happy to provide loaner USB drives to our local clients at The Farmory, or, if you prefer to have me mail it to you please contact me for information.

Please remember that while I list many different applications within these updates, most people should ONLY install updates for a program if they already have a previous version of that program installed.

It is essential to maintain all the applications you have installed on your computer, but often you can minimize the time investment and the potential for exploitation simply by uninstalling software you do not need.

Also note that using the applications own “check for updates” function, when available, will best preserve your current settings, and often avoid any crapware that might come with a fresh installer. Use this option if it’s available to you.

Finally, if you’re sick of doing this all yourself, let me! Call or email me any time, and we can set you up with subscription SaferPC updates which will be installed each month whenever necessary. Click, call or email for more details:
https://saferpc.info/updates/
209-565-12PD
shawn@12pointdesign.com

Driver Updates

If you’re using this hardware – these updates are for you.

Display Driver Uninstaller 18.0.0.0 adds support for newer hardware and resolves stability problems. This should be treated as a security update.
https://www.wagnardsoft.com/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu

Logitech Gaming Software 9.02.61 adds support for newer hardware and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://support.logitech.com/en_us/software/lgs

Logitech Options 6.92.275 adds support for newer hardware and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://support.logitech.com/en_us/software/options

Browser Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Google Chrome 69.0.3497.92 is a security update. This build also significantly changes the interface. The tab bar is larger and squared and the address bar now conceals some information that would otherwise be important (such as ‘www’ and the protocol – http vs https), relying instead only on a cosmetic lock indicator. This build also adds a prefetching header to finally join other mature browsers in alerting servers whether requests are prospective or due to user action. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current release.

Firefox 62.0 is a security update. This build also significantly changes the home page, adding large blocks for history, Pocket, and highlights. This version also improves CSS support and is one step closer to completely disabling weak Symantec certificates. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current release.

Firefox ESR 60.2.0 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current release.

Brave 0.23.107 is a security update. Brave is the best Chrome alternative I’m currently aware of, but is still a few days behind in security patches. Brave patches for the current Chromium release within 48 hours to their dev channel, but it takes a couple more days for that to be promoted to the current release.
https://www.brave.com/

Vivaldi 1.15.1147.64 is a security update. Vivaldi is slow to patch security updates from the Chromium base, so you should still avoid using it as your primary browser or you open yourself up to targeted attacks for known vulnerabilities.
https://vivaldi.com/

Internet Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Skype 8.30.0.50 resolves several feature disappearances since the 8.x release. This is not a security update.
https://12pd.com/click?skype

Trillian 6.1.0.17 resolvs several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.trillian.im/

Trillian Mac 6.1.0.8 resolves bugs. This is not a security update.

WinSCP 5.13.4 is a security update. This build resolves several bugs and updates libraries.
https://winscp.net/eng/index.php

uTorrent 3.5.4 Build 44520 is a security update.
https://www.utorrent.com/downloads

FreeFileSync 10.4 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.freefilesync.org/download.php

FileZilla 3.36.0 resolves several crash bugs. This is not a security update.
https://filezilla-project.org/

MaxMind GeoIP Data 201809 is a data refresh.
https://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geolite

Media Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

VLC Media Player 3.0.4 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

MusicBrainz Picard 2.0.4 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_Picard

Game Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

EA Origin 10.5.25.7131 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.origin.com/en-us/download

PlayStation PS4 5.56 improves performance. This is not a security update.
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/system-updates/ps4/

Office Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to most people.

Adobe Photoshop CC 19.1.6 and 18.1.6 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/photoshop/apsb18-28.html

Artweaver 6.0.9 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.artweaver.de/

Paint.net 4.1 resolves several bugs and adds many new features. This is not a security update.
https://www.getpaint.net/

Kindle for PC 1.24.3.51068 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://12pd.com/click?kindle4pc

Krita 4.1.1 resolves several bugs and adds new features. This is not a security update.
https://krita.org/en/download/krita-desktop/

Security Software Updates

One or more of these is likely to be of interest to most people.

OpenSSL 1.1.1 is a security update.

OpenSSL 1.1.0i is a security update.

Avast! Home Edition 18.6.2349.0 removes VPN, adds TLS 1.3 scanning, and resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

KeePass 1.36 updates libraries, improves compatibility and ACL. This should be treated as a security update.
https://keepass.sourceforge.net/

Wireshark 2.6.3.0 is a security update.
https://www.wireshark.org/

Gpg4win 3.1.3 resolves several bugs. This Should be treated as a security update.
https://www.gpg4win.org/download.html

DNSQuerySniffer 1.72 resolves a crash bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/dns_query_sniffer.html

RouterPassView 1.75 adds support for several new encryption protocols. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/router_password_recovery.html

SmartSniff 2.29 resolves a crash bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/smsniff.html

PS Pending Reboot 0.9.0.6 resolves a reliability bug. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/bcwilhite/PendingReboot

RogueKiller 12.13.0 is a security update.
https://www.adlice.com/softwares/roguekiller/

Converter Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

CDex 2.09 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://cdex.mu/?q=download

DVDFab 10.2.1.3 adds support for new encodings, resolves severa bugs, and improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://www.dvdfab.cn/download.htm

Utility Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

RoboForm 8.5.3 should be treated as a security update. This build resolves a major risk of data loss.
https://12pd.com/click?rf

GoodSync 10.9.8 resolves many bugs and introduces a new GSTP version that improves performance. This is a security update.
https://12pd.com/click?goodsync

NTLite 1.7.0.6500 adds several tweaks and resolves bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.ntlite.com/download/

Cygwin 2.11.0 is a security update.
https://cygwin.com/

DesktopOK 5.56 resolves bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/DesktopOK

NetworkTrafficView 2.16 resolves a stability bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/network_traffic_view.html

RegFileExport 1.10 resolves an encoding bug. This should be treated as a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/registry_file_offline_export.html

WifiChannelMonitor 1.57 updates internal MAC database and resolves a positioning bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_channel_monitor.html

WifiInfoView 2.40 adds option to filter by signal quality. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html

SystemRescueCD 5.3.0 is a security update.
https://www.sysresccd.org/

TeamViewer 13.2.14327 resolves crash bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/windows/

WinScan2PDF 4.41 updates language files. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/WinScan2PDF

WizTree 3.26 adds color customization and improves high DPI support. This is not a security update.
https://antibody-software.com/web/software/software/wiztree-finds-the-files-and-folders-using-the-most-disk-space-on-your-hard-drive/

Rufus 3.2 adds application signing, improves performance, and resolves several bugs. This should be treated as a security update.
https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Virtual Machine Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

DOSBox 0.74-2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.dosbox.com/

VMware Player 14.1.3 is a security update.
https://www.vmware.com/products/player/

Web Package Updates

These are likely to be of interest only to web developers.

DigiCertUtil 20180829 doesn’t provide a changelog, so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.digicert.com/util/

Joomla 3.8.12 is a security update.
https://www.joomla.org/

phpMyAdmin 4.8.3 is a security update.
https://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/news.php

phpList 3.3.4 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.phplist.com/download

Contact Form 7 5.0.4 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

NextScripts Social Networks Auto-Poster 4.2.7 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

Redirection 3.4.1 resolves several bugs. This should be treated as a security update.

WooCommerce 3.4.5 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

That’s all for now folks. Keep it clean out there. 😉

Regards,

Shawn K. Hall
https://SaferPC.info/
https://12PointDesign.com/