Microsoft stuffs sysadmins' stockings with critical patches

Stephen Withers
Friday, 05 December 2008 00:41

Your IT - Home IT

System administrators look like having a busy time in the run-up to Christmas as they digest and test the eight security bulletins that Microsoft expects to release next Tuesday. Six of the bulletins are rated critical.

Microsoft routinely provides advance notification of its plans for Patch Tuesday, the monthly release of security patches. December will see a wide-ranging collection of bulletins addressing issues with many of Microsoft's flagship products.

Critical patches for the company's operating systems affect Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista and Server 2008 (including Server Core installations).

Microsoft has warned that the two bulletins affecting Windows have maximum security ratings of critical, and applying the patches will require a restart.

Another critical issue affects Internet Explorer versions 5, 6 and 7, though the problem is only considered moderate for IE 6 on Windows Server 2003.

The Windows Media code is also due for an update, with an important bulletin covering Windows Media Player 6.4; Windows Media Format Runtime 7.1, 9.0, 9.5 and 11; and Windows Media Services 4.1 and 9.

Multiple bulletins affect Microsoft Office components and related software.

Please read on for more details.