Summary

MBSA 1.2.1 incorrectly reports installations of Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 as IE 6.0. This has impacts on ManageSoft Security Manager report data, as ManageSoft Security Manager correctly reports the information provided by MBSA.

About MBSA

Currently there are two versions of MBSA available. MBSA 2.0 detects products that are supported by Microsoft Update, the central catalog of updates for Microsoft products.

Several products that are supported by the previous version of MBSA (version 1.2.1) are not currently available in Microsoft Update. Therefore, MBSA 2.0 cannot scan for them.

The applications that are not scanned with MBSA 2.0 include:

• Microsoft Exchange 5.0 and 5.5
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 (SP3a)
• Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000, 2004, and SNA Server 4.0
• Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000, 2002, and 2004
• Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 and 2002
• Microsoft Content Management Server 2001 and 2002.

Also see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895660/de for further details of products not scanned by MBSA 2.0.

The problem

MBSA 1.2.1 incorrectly reports installations of Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 as IE 6.0.

As a result, security patches that apply to IE 6 but not to IE 7 may be reported by MBSA 1.2.1 as required on computers with IE 7 installed.

For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsa1/qa.mspx under the heading "Why do I receive a warning that the latest Internet Explorer 6.0 security update is missing even though I have Internet Explorer 7 installed ?".

Impacts on ManageSoft Security Manager

ManageSoft Security Manager will correctly report the inaccurate analysis from MBSA, so computers with IE 7 will report as non-compliant.

If you deploy the IE 6 patches to the non-compliant IE7 computers, the installation may fail.

Resolving the problem

If you do not use any of the products that can only be scanned by MBSA 1.2.1, you may uninstall MBSA 1.2.1. The problem will then cease to occur.

If you do use the products supported only by MBSA 1.2.1, it is recommended that you continue to use MBSA 1.2.1 in conjunction with MBSA 2.0. In this circumstance, the problem with IE 7 will continue to occur. There is currently no work-around available from Microsoft.

install security report inventory status