Description of the format of Microsoft Knowledge Base articles for Microsoft Security Updates

Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are associated with security updates include the following information:

Security Updates That Have Been Released Since October 15, 2003

On October 15, 2003, Microsoft implemented changes in the way security bulletins are released in response to extensive customer feedback. For additional information about these changes, visit the following Microsoft Web site:Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are associated with security updates that have been released since October 15, 2003, provide a link to the corresponding security bulletin without duplicating some of the same information in the security bulletin. All information that was previously available only in the Knowledge Base article (such as file information) is now provided in the security bulletin.

Security Updates That Were Released Before October 15, 2003

• Title - The title begins with the security bulletin number (for example, "MS03-001"), followed by a colon and a title that is similar to the title of the associated Microsoft security bulletin.
• The "The Information in This Article Applies to" Section - This section lists the affected Microsoft products.
• Keywords - The "kbSecBulletin" keyword is used for all Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are associated with security updates.
• Symptoms - This section includes the same information as the "Technical Description" section of the Microsoft security bulletin. It may also include information from the "Mitigating Factors" section of the security bulletin.
• Cause - This section is optional. It is included only if the cause of the security vulnerability is not explained in the "Symptoms" section.
• Resolution - This section contains the following subsections.
  
  Note If a security update is available for multiple products (or multiple versions of the same product), this section may contain product-specific or version-specific sections that contain the following subsections.
  • Download Information - This subsection contains information about how and where to download the security update.
  • Prerequisites - This subsection contains information about any necessary prerequisites to install the security update (for example, a service pack or a previous version of the product may be necessary). If there are no prerequisites, this subsection contains "No prerequisites are required."
  • Installation Information - This subsection contains information about the setup switches that you can use to install the security update, and it contains registry information that you can use to verify that the security update is installed.
  • Deployment Information - This subsection contains information about command-line switches that administrators can use to install the security update without any user intervention and without forcing the computer to restart. This subsection also contains any other deployment information that is specific to the security update or to the product.
  • Removal Information - This subsection contains information about how you can remove the security update if it supports being removed.
  • Restart Requirement - This subsection contains information about whether a restart is required after you apply the security update, or whether you can stop and then restart a service so that you do not have to restart the computer.
  • Patch Replacement Information - This subsection contains information about whether the security update replaces, or is replaced by, another software update.
  • File Information - This subsection contains a list of the files that are updated by the security update (and the registry location for the file list, if applicable).
• Workaround - This is an optional section that contains information that you can use to work around the problem without installing the security update.
• Status - This section contains status information.
• More Information - This section contains a link to the Microsoft security bulletin and any additional information.