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Office 2013 Patch Names in K1000

As per my normal routine, I did a manual check for updates via the built-in Windows Update. To my surprise it returns a number of "needed" patches. Some of them were the ones released just yesterday so I was not worried about those. What concerned me is under the Office 2013 section there were quite a few updates needed. Some of them were a few months old!

 

So I start digging through the Patch Catalog in KACE and the lovely Microsoft Bulletins. I wanted to focus on a single update to see if I could figure out what was going on. I chose KB2910929, Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2013 64-bit Edition, bulletin MS14-083. In KACE, I found the package for MS14-083, but the only update for it was for Excel 2007 (which I don't have in my environment). Nowhere could I find the updates for 2010 or 2013 (of which I have both).

 

I found myself on the Subscriptions page making sure I had the correct labels subscribed to download. Here I see the checkbox "Display disabled patches in patch catalog." I'd seen this numerous times since my time with the kbox. I always left it unchecked because I had no reason or desire to see the disabled patches when I need to view the Patch Catalog. But, I checked the box and hit save. Head back over to my Patch Catalog and  - whad'ya know! - I find my missing patches.

 

Turns out they were disabled. They were disabled because they didn't land in the proper label. The label it should have landed in was one that either came with the kbox or that the trainer provided during the jump-start training - I don't remember. Either way, it was a Patch Label that I didn't create. I had looked at its SQL before, even changed its name, but I never saw a need to edit it. It worked and I liked that. 

 

I drilled into the label to take a peek.

The labels default SQL was as follows:

 

SELECT UID

FROM KBSYS.PATCHLINK_PATCH

WHERE KBSYS.PATCHLINK_PATCH.VENDOR like '%Microsoft%'

AND KBSYS.PATCHLINK_PATCH.TITLE like '%Office%'        

AND KBSYS.PATCHLINK_PATCH.TITLE not rlike 'Service Pack | SP3'

AND KBSYS.PATCHLINK_PATCH.LANGUAGE_ID rlike '0|1'

AND KBSYS.PATCHLINK_PATCH.PLATFORM_ID='1'

AND RELEASEDATE > DATE_SUB(now(), INTERVAL 4 YEAR)

AND IS_SUPERCEDED != '1'

 

The main point here that stood out was the second condition in the WHERE clause: TITLE like '%Office%'. Well, the title on all my missing patches didn't contain the word "Office." They were for Office, but the title contained "Microsoft Excel" or "Microsoft Outlook" etc.

 

Needless to say, I had to edit my label to include the additional titles.

 

This is the first time this has to me so maybe a naming convention at PatchLink changed? I'm not sure but I thought I'd share with y'all. If you have any input I'd be glad to hear it. 


Comments

  • as soon as I saw like %Office% I could see where that was going.
    Good info.
    Interesting to see if something else has changed. You have never noticed missing patches when you normally check? - Badger 9 years ago
    • I had not. Office 2013 has been a slow deployment as the various departments decide to make the switch. I have a very small number of machines with it. I noticed on a lab machine with it installed which lead me down the path i described above. - getElementById 9 years ago
  • ahh, office 2013, slow deployment, given you were unpatched, you can be glad of the slow progress. At least you caught it, good eye - Badger 9 years ago
    • Indeed. Also fortunate that most office patches had been installed - it was the application specific ones that were missed. That said, a missing patch is a big deal in my opinion. - getElementById 9 years ago
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