Microsoft promises lightweight Patch Tuesday

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 5 Mar 2010 at 10:42

Microsoft will issue two bulletins addressing eight flaws in Windows and Office for this month's Patch Tuesday.

Both bulletins are listed as important - Microsoft's second highest alert rating - and will address flaws that could allow remote code execution in all supported versions of Office on Windows and Mac OS X, and Windows XP and higher.

There was no word on a fix for the VBScript security issue exposed earlier this week, which allows hackers to hijack a user’s computer by getting them to press F1 on a phony site.

However, announcing the bulletins on Microsoft’s security blog, senior security communications manager Jerry Bryant said that Microsoft would continue to monitor the situation.

"There are no known attacks but we encourage customers to review the advisory and apply the suggested workarounds where possible," said Bryant. "Customers that are running Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Vista are not affected."

The bulletin represents a light patch compared to last month, when the firm fixed 26 holes with 13 bulletins, including a number of critical vulnerabilities in Windows.

Microsoft also confirmed that it would cease support for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista RTM later this year, urging users to upgrade to Windows 7.