Microsoft Monthly Patch Tuesday Brings Dozen of Fixes

Today's Tuesday and with it comes Microsoft's patch process with 12 fixes in the pipeline including seven which have been classified as critical, pertaining both to Office and Windows.

The critical vulnerabilities affect Internet Explorer and Media Player on all contemporary operating systems (Windows 2000, XP and Vista, Windows Server 2003 and 2008); as it is the case in most breaches, the patches deal with remote code execution which allows a hackers to control a computer unbeknown to the legitimate owner.

The other five non-critical patches target Microsoft's popular Office Applications: Access, Excel and Poowerpoint.

Also in the bunch are a number of important fixes for Outlook Express, MSN Messenger and Word plus an upgrade to its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Last month's release did not include any critical vulnerability patches and marked a turnaround in the way Microsoft deals with vulnerabilities; the software company has already signalled that it would be collaborating more closely with third parties before releasing patches to the public.

In August 2007, Microsoft's Patch Tuesday was fingered out as the culprit for a general breakdown in Skype worldwide.  Tags: Microsoft, Patch management