Patch Tuesday brings quartet of critical fixes

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 12 Mar 2008 at 12:17

Microsoft has released four updates in its Patch Tuesday security bulletin, all focused on its Office suite.

The four updates are rated critical and address 12 vulnerabilities in its Office suite. The most serious of the fixes addresses a vulnerability in Excel that could allow an attacker to take over an affected system if the victim opens a maliciously crafted Excel file.

MS08-015 corrects a vulnerability in Outlook, which allowed attackers to read and re-route a user's e-mail messages, while MS08-017 fixes two reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Web Components, which would grant hackers access to the affected system.

Speaking on its blog, Symantec describes MS08-017 as the "worst of the bunch", due to the ease with which they can exploited.

Microsoft's summary of the fixes can be found here.