Microsoft Plans Jumbo Patch Day Next Week

Microsoft today said it will deliver 10 security updates next week to patch serious bugs in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Word and Excel. If the company follows through on its plans — sometimes Microsoft ditches an update at the last minute — next week’s Patch Tuesday will be the largest since October 2008.

“We’re back to a normal load,” said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security. “Some may think of it as pretty big, but really, for anyone who’s dealt with Patch Tuesday for the last five years, it’s what we should be expecting.”

Of the 10 updates Microsoft announced today in its monthly advance notification, six will affect Windows, and one each will patch problems in Internet Explorer (IE), Word, Excel and Microsoft Office. Six of the 10 were marked “critical,” Microsoft’s highest threat ranking, while three were judged “moderate” and one as “important.”

The six critical updates will patch Windows (which gets two of the updates), IE, Word, Excel and Office.

“The red flag is going to be [the] IE [update].” said Storms. “It’s critical, it’s on all versions [of Windows], and it’s even critical in Vista for IE7 and IE8.”

Source: ComputerWorld

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