A new critical update has just been published by MS, and I urgently need to update my copy of mssecure.cab so that I can scan my PC’s with the SMS 2003 security scan and apply the patch. How do I do that?

If you used the default setting when you installed the SMS patch management tools then SMS will download and run patch management every 7 days. But if you require it to happen immediately due to an outbreak, then the first step is to update your copy of mssecure.cab so that your catalog of available patches contains the entry for the new critical update.

There are a number of ways to force an update, but probably the easiest is to just download the file manually. You can download the mssecure.cab file manually from http://download.microsoft.com/download/xml/security/1.0/nt5/en-us/mssecure.cab. Once you have downloaded it you will need to copy it over the top of the old mssecure.cab file in the package file location that relates to your security scan package. Search the SMSPKGC$ folder to find it if you aren’t sure where it is.

Note that mssecure.cab is a cabinet file that contains a single file called mssecure.xml. The SMS patch management tool needs the mssecure.cab file to be present, not mssecure.xml.

Regards
Paul Eddington
 

KB Keywords: patch, management, SMS, 2003, Systems, Management, Server, critical, urgent, manual, mssecure.cab, mssecure.xml, mssecure.