Type 1 font handling messed up by December 11, 2012 update KB2753842

Anonymous
2012-12-13T00:15:42+00:00

Programs like Quark Xpress and Coreldraw on Windows 7 and XP have their Type 1 font handling broken by this patch. Characters larger than 15 pt. become invisible. Uninstalling the patch removes the problem. We have 330 machines with this problem. Is Microsoft getting ready to release a fix for this?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2013-01-02T09:53:51+00:00

Hello all,

Please be informed, that MS12-078 now has been updated – you can read more about the update here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms12-078

Why was this bulletin rereleased on December 20, 2012? ****Microsoft rereleased this bulletin to address a known issue in the KB2753842 update related to OpenType Fonts (OTF) not properly rendering in applications after the original update was applied. Customers who have successfully installed the original KB2753842 update are protected from the vulnerability described in CVE-2012-2556. However, customers need to install the rereleased KB2753842 update to resolve the issue with improper OpenType font rendering and to keep the affected binaries up to date.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-12-14T16:48:13+00:00

    What I woiuld like to see is an authoritative statement from Microsoft that they accept there is a problem with KB2753842 and some indication of when/how it is going to be fixed.

    At present this Microsoft bulletin

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/bulletin/MS12-078

    still says "Known issues: none" and that is seriously unhelpful.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-12-14T14:52:41+00:00

    Claude, thanks again for the insightful comment. Hope Corel/Adobe/Quark and others are going to push MS to fix this brainfart quickly. 

    Dear MS, how much testing has this "hotfix" received? It compiles, ship it? :-X You've have made it to Infoworld once again, happy? http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/buggy-microsoft-patch-causing-fonts-disappear-209207

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-12-14T14:06:35+00:00

    Note also that this is not only affecting Type 1 font, it also affect true type and open type fonts using postscript outlines.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-12-14T14:01:44+00:00

    This update would require an update from the program developers to cope with the changes made

    This is not a problem with the program's code : it is a very serious windows API issue.

    "The GetGlyphOutline() api will fail to return the required buffer size on fonts using PostScript Outlines when requesting the GGO_BEZIER or GGO_NATIVE format. It will return 0 which is completely wrong unless you are getting the 'space' character outline!"

    Here is a typical way to use this api :

    DWORD dwGlyphCurveSize = pDC->GetGlyphOutline(wChar,GGO_GLYPH_INDEX | GGO_BEZIER, &metricBezier, 0, NULL, &mIdentity); if(dwGlyphCurveSize != GDI_ERROR) { BYTE* pGlyphCurve = new BYTE[dwGlyphCurveSize]; dwGlyphCurveSize = pDC->GetGlyphOutline(wChar,GGO_GLYPH_INDEX | GGO_BEZIER, &metricBezier, dwGlyphCurveSize, pGlyphCurve, &mIdentity); ... }

    Since KB2753842, dwGlyphCurveSize can be incorrectly set to 0 for some fonts : not all fonts.

    Claude Peloquin - Senior Software Developer on CorelDRAW - Speciality : TEXT.

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