Microsoft Fixes SUS Glitch

Microsoft on Tuesday released an automated tool that fixes the glitch in the Software Update Services (SUS) server which rolled back previously approved updates to unapproved status.

After the latest round of Microsoft patches were released Dec. 13, some enterprise administrators found that their SUS servers reverted all approved updates to unapproved status.

Although Microsoft quickly posted a support document listing manual methods of turning back the clock, a script-based tool was only promised, not delivered.

The delay was due in part to a bug in a first edition of the script, which Microsoft rolled out Dec. 14. The flawed script, called "Approval Analyzer Tool" by Microsoft, turned updates which had been set as "unapproved" by the administrator into "approved" updates, which if not corrected, would have deployed them to workstations and servers.

The new version of Approval Analyzer Tool is available for downloading from Microsoft's site.The SUS snafu was just the latest in a string of patching problems that have plagued Microsoft customers over the last few months. In October, for instance, two fixes had to be revised and reissued.