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Microsoft Corp. has made available for download the first release candidate of a major security update to Windows Server 2003.

To further tighten security on new installations, the Post-setup Security Update Wizard blocks all incoming traffic until the latest updates are applied and Automatic Updates are configured.

The Service Pack adds the Windows Firewall, perhaps the most significant addition to Windows XP SP2. The new firewall is manageable using Windows group policy. Just as with Windows XP SP2, Microsoft acknowledges that the changes in Windows Server 2003 SP1 are basic enough to the behavior of the operating system that they may affect application behavior. The company argues that the improvements are important enough that applications should be changed to accommodate them.

For insights on security coverage around the Web, check out eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer’s Weblog.

SP1 enhances authentication for RPC and DCOM interfaces, which have been popular avenues for attack in the past. A new Network Access Quarantine Control delays access to remote networks until the configuration of those networks has been audited. And VPN Quarantine allows the system to require that clients connecting through a virtual private network have the latest security updates. Finally, an auditing capability has been added for the IIS Metabase, the XML-based data store for the Internet Information Server Web server.

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