Microsoft has fixed a patch update problem that was preventing some users from deploying the latest round of patches.
According to Microsoft, a bug in Configuration Manager 2007 (ConfigMgr) kept users from deploying the latest round of patches to SMS (Systems Management Services) 2003 clients. At the heart of the matter was the June 10 release of the WSUS Offline Scan Catalog (wsusscn2.cb), which does not synchronize on a ConfigMgr 2007 or ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 site server using the ITMU (Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates).
The problem is a result of changes that were made for the June 10 release. Additional metadata associated with Microsoft Office 2003 SP1 was added to the Wsusscn2.cab file, and the catalog synchronization process (UpdateWUSCatalog.exe) was not designed to handle those changes.
Microsoft fixed the issue by changing the version of the UpdateWUSCatalog.exe file included in this update to accommodate the new metadata.
“This advisory is to let customers know that we’re aware of an issue that is affecting the deployment of the June 2008 security updates,” Microsoft’s Christopher Budd wrote June 13 in an advisory. “This issue only affects customers using System Center Configuration Manager 2007; none of our other detection or deployment technologies are affected. Also, the issue only affects the deployment of security updates to System Management Server (SMS) 2003 clients of ConfigMgr 2007 servers. This means that to be affected by this issue, you must be running a mixed ConfigMgr 2007 and SMS 2003 environment. If you are not running this specific configuration, this issue does not affect you.”