Another patchy performance from Microsoft

Stan Beer
Saturday, 05 August 2006 10:03

Business IT - Security

It seems to be a case of another second Tuesday of the month another dozen patches for Microsoft software. According to the software giant, we can expect to see another twelve patches released for its monthly Patch Tuesday in August.

According to Microsoft, 10 of the patches involve vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system, while two address problems with Office, including a PowerPoint hole that was identified in July.

It is not clear how many of the patches fall into the highest severity rating of critical, However, reports say that at least two patches spanning the Windows and Office flaws are considered critical, which means they can be exploited by hackers without users doing anything.

Critical flaws are those that can be exploited by attackers to run unauthorized code on a PC without any user action.

The patches, some of which will require a restart, will be released on Aug. 8 as part of Microsoft’s regularly scheduled monthly security update, which security researchers call "Patch Tuesday." Microsoft’s advance note on the updates can be found here.

On August Patch Tuesday Microsoft will also release an update to its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

The high occurrence of monthly patches appears to be the norm nowadays for Microsoft. In July, the software company issued seven patches, five of which were critical, while in June Microsoft issued 12 patches, eight of which were deemed critical.

It appears that new holes are being identified in Microsoft software faster than the company can patch them. Just days after July Patch Tuesday, a critical vulnerability was found in PowerPoint.