questions about /var/adm/wmtp and applying patches

I'm running wuftp, version 2.6.2 on Solaris 8.

I have been trying to find a definitive answer for the issue of w-ftp attempting to write to /var/adm/wtmp on Solaris 8.  I haven't found one.  Is there a preferred means to avoid filling the /var/adm/messages file with "/var/adm/wtmp No such file or directory" messages?

Also, I see that security patches are available.  Is there a doc, or a point of reference on how to apply these patches?  We don't typically use third party software in our environment, so I have limited familiarity with working with source code.  I suspect that the patches get applied to the source code and that binaries are then recreated - but I sure hate guessing.

Any help on either front would be greatly appreciated.

Joe