Patch frenzy erupts after August Patch Tuesday

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 05:37

Your IT - Home IT

And finally, another Office-related bulletin. A maliciously crafted Word file can trigger remote code execution when opened in Word 2002 or 2003. Other versions including the various viewers and compatibility packs are not affected by this issue, which is rated important.

This vulnerability, which only delivers the same rights as the current user, is being exploited.

The Malicious Software Removal Tool and the Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter have also been updated.

Non-security updates for the month include the release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1; a daylight savings update for XP, Vista, and Server 2003 and 2008; a compatibility update for Saming OneKey recovery software for XP, Vista and Server 2008; an MDAC update for XP, Vista and Server 2008; and an update for Windows Server Update Services 3 SP1.

Microsoft has also updated the detections for some earlier updates so they are offered to systems that have installed certain service packs prior to installing those updates.

Most of us will simply allow Windows Update to do its thing and install the patches relevant to our systems, but administrators will have their work cut out checking so many updates for compatibility with their organisations' standard operating environments.