Yesterday saw Microsoft’s monthly patch release, the Tuesday when the company issues fixes to problems with Windows. But this time around it wasthe second-largest group of fixes this year, with something for everyone who uses Windows. There was a total of nine security bulletins in the patch, correcting 14 vulnerabilities. Eight ofthem were rated as critical, with four more having the slightly lower rating of important; only two warranted moderate on Miocrosoft’s scale. Between them, they fix problems in Windows, IE,Windows Media Player, Excel, Office, Virtual PC, Visual Basic and Virtual Server. According to security company Symantec, the fix of IE was the mostvital, since a pair of vulnerabilities affect IE 6 and & on Vista, XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. It will stop hackers being able to remotely insert malicious code. Over atsecurity competitors McAfee, they noted that one patch fixes the problem of Vista being attacked by malicious RSS feeds. “Many of the vulnerabilitiesaddressed by Microsoft’s fixes could be exploited if a Windows user simply visits a malicious Web site,” said Dave Marcus, security research at McAfee Avert Labs. “Microsoft’s patchesagain underline the trend of malware writers seeking out the Web browser as a means of attack and reinforce the need of safe browsing habits.” The biggest Patch Tuesday in 2007 occurredin February, when Microsoft issued 12 patches to correct 20 vulnerabilities.
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