April a big month for Microsoft security updates

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 15 April 2009 06:57

Business IT - Technology

It's a busy month for Windows administrators, as Microsoft has released eight security bulletins addressing more than 20 vulnerabilities. Five of the bulletins are rated 'critical'.

2009 had a quiet start on the Microsoft security front, with just one bulletin in January, four in February and three in March.

But the running total for the year has just doubled, with eight new bulletins published this week.

Five are rated 'critical', two 'important' and one 'moderate'.

Affected software includes Windows (2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008), Office (2000, XP, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008) Forefront Threat Management Gateway, and ISA Server (2004, 2006).

Not quite something for everyone, but not far short - that's all currently supported versions of Windows and Office (including Office for Mac).

Three of the bulletins address vulnerabilities that are already being actively exploited. They concern flaws in Excel, WordPad and Office Text Converters that allow remote code execution, and Windows vulnerabilities that could allow privilege elevation.

The Excel issue is only considered critical for Excel 2000: for other versions it is important. Similarly, the WordPad/Office Text Converters issue is critical for Word 2000, otherwise it is regarded as important.

What other software is covered by this month's patches? See page two.