Does any Office X program PID check need to close a new port?

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Does Microsoft Office X SR1 need to CLOSE a new port each time it checks a
PID and one quits any MS program?

Since installing Apple's Security Updater 7-14-03 (with OS 10.2.6), my
firewall program reports the closing of a different 3000-range port
immediately after quitting ANY Microsoft program.

Apple's higher-tier tech support personnel had me run several procedures,
including creating a new test account, to verify this was happening only
with Security Updater 7-14-03.

Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 3 .0 higher-tier tech support personnel
said they were aware of Microsoft PID checks, but NOT why Microsoft was
closing the ports after checking the PID.

I raised a different question in the Entourage newsgroup when I initially
only had quitting problems and learned that the problem was not with
Entourage per se and that the PID checks involve random port selection.
Because this affects all Office X programs and because I am raising a new
question on the closing of ports, I'm now addressing it to this newsgroup.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Norman,

Does Microsoft Office X SR1 need to CLOSE a new port each time it checks a
PID and one quits any MS program?

It sure does it for me with Office 10.1.3 (French and US version)

[...]

I raised a different question in the Entourage newsgroup when I initially

Indeed )

only had quitting problems and learned that the problem was not with
Entourage per se and that the PID checks involve random port selection.
Because this affects all Office X programs and because I am raising a new
question on the closing of ports, I'm now addressing it to this newsgroup.

I think the applications close the ports when they quit because they
sent a request to open them first (as far as I remember) and they want
to behave like "good citizens" by not leaving the ports open.
Not much to worry about IMHO,


Corentin

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Thanks very much, Corentin.

Hi Norman,

Does Microsoft Office X SR1 need to CLOSE a new port each time it checks a
PID and one quits any MS program?

It sure does it for me with Office 10.1.3 (French and US version)

[...]

I raised a different question in the Entourage newsgroup when I initially

Indeed )

only had quitting problems and learned that the problem was not with
Entourage per se and that the PID checks involve random port selection.
Because this affects all Office X programs and because I am raising a new
question on the closing of ports, I'm now addressing it to this newsgroup.

I think the applications close the ports when they quit because they
sent a request to open them first (as far as I remember) and they want
to behave like "good citizens" by not leaving the ports open.
Not much to worry about IMHO,


Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Thanks very much, Corentin.

Sure ) You're very welcome.


Corentin