'Security' Updates kosher?

teckneeculler · 24 Jan 2017

I'm just about to grab a bunch of Windows Updates on a friend's computer.

Most of the offered updates at the beginning of the batch (the first 147 out of a total of 210) are labeled as 'Security' Updates.

My gut feeling is that anything with the 'Security Update blah blah..' name is probably 'safe'. So I thought I'd grab these and leave the other 63 until I've had time to vet them.

What do you guys think?

I mean, I don't want to download any 'dodgy' updates onto my mate's machine. Like Telemetry or W10 promotional stuff.

So is the presence of the 'Security' prefix in the name an indication that the Update is basically what it says and not M$ spyware?

ThrashZone · 24 Jan 2017

Hi,
Well yes that is or it used to be the case security was usually allowed as just that security related.
Not of course with the wording with the security rollups MS added "quality" to add crapware

As long as you exclude recommended updates from being mixed in with important updates you should be fine.

But with the rollups if you just want security only then you'll have to manually install them every month or when ever they are released
Here is January 2017
KB3207752 and KB3212642 Update for Windows 7 SP1

teckneeculler · 24 Jan 2017

Thanks, Thrash. I suspected they might be okay but didn't want to screw it up for my mate

Alejandro85 · 29 Jan 2017

It's NOT safe to blindly install all updates labeled "security" and hope nothing has malware bundled. While the vast majority of cases they were real updates, there is at least one case of a security updated that bundled a malicious payload:
Windows patch KB 3139929: When a security update is not a security update | InfoWorld

In this case, a patch for Internet Explorer actually fixes some security problems, but at the same time it started included adware to persuade users to downgrade to Windows 10 as a requirement.

Given that there was at least a confirmed security update also carrying a virus, I won't simply install them all without a review.