June Patch Tuesday will be a biggie!

Stephen Withers
Friday, 05 June 2009 09:46

Business IT - Security

Microsoft's planning to release ten new security bulletins next Tuesday, along with an update to finish a job started in May. But there's still a critical bug in Windows that hasn't been completely squashed.

Last month was relatively quiet on the Microsoft patch front, but June's shaping up to be a busy time.

Microsoft has revealed plans to release six patches for Windows: two are rated Critical as they may allow remote code execution, three are Important (privilege escalation) and one Moderate (information disclosure).

These patches are particularly serious for Windows 2000, where the highest severity rating is Critical. The other currently supported versions (XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008) have a maximum rating of Important.

Furthermore, only three of the issues apply to Vista and Server 2008.

But that's not the whole story. There's also an Internet Explorer bulletin that's rated Critical on all versions of Windows except Server 2008, where it is regarded as Moderate. The flaw is present in IE versions 5, 6, 7 and 8.

The other three new bulletins affect Word, Excel and Office, and each has a highest security rating of Critical (on Office 2000; the rating is reduced to Important for Office XP, 2003 and 2007).

What else is coming? Find out on page 2.