Microsoft will issue 14 security bulletins on Tuesday to plug 34 holes, including eight that are critical, in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, SQL and Silverlight, the company said on Thursday.
“This will be the most bulletins we have ever released in a month; we have released 13 bulletins on a couple of occasions,” Angela Gunn, security response communications manager at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. “However, in total CVE [common vulnerabilities and exposures] count, this release ties with June 2010, so there’s no new record there.”
Affected software includes: Windows 7; Windows XP; Vista; Windows Server 2003 and 2008; Windows Server 2008 release 2; IE 6, 7 and 8; Office XP Service Pack 3; Office 2003 Service Pack 3; 2007 Microsoft Office System Service Pack 2; Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac; Office Word Viewer; Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint; 2007 File Formats Service Pack 2; Microsoft Works 9; and Silverlight 2 and 3.
The IE, Office, and Silverlight updates fix an increasingly used type of flaw “where attackers and malware go through the installed applications rather than through the core operating system,” said Qualys CTO Wolfgang Kandek.
Microsoft will issue
A few days after announcing that Windows XP SP2 would no longer be supported, Microsoft on Monday announced the availability of a beta version of its Service Pack 1 update to Windows 7.
A computer operating system is like a desk. It should be comfortable to work at; sturdy and stable; handsome to look upon, but not distracting; it should be able to store files and tools away when not in use, but keep them accessible when you need them. But above all else, an OS should get out of the way and let you get your work done. Now imagine if your desk were enormous—taking up a significant portion of the room you keep it in. To get started working requires unfoldings, knob-twistings and other complex procedures. When you finally are seated, you open a drawer on your desk to get a new pen and the drawer instantly snaps shut on you, saying “Do you really want to use that pen? It’s new and I don’t know where it came from.” Then you say, “Yes, I bought the pen and I’d like to use it. I know where it came from.” And then your desk replies, “All right, fine. Use the pen, but before you do, I want to make sure that I’ve expressed my reservations about that pen. It’s a fountain pen and those have been known to explode and shoot ink all over the place. You’ve been warned.”