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Microsoft promises monster Patch Tuesday

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 5 Feb 2010 at 09:07

Microsoft is planning a bumper Patch Tuesday next week, with the company rolling out 13 bulletins addressing 26 vulnerabilities.

Of those 13 bulletins, five have been rated critical - Microsoft's highest security alert - due to the risk of remote code execution. A further seven are pegged as important, the next rating down, and one has been classed as moderate.

According to Microsoft's advanced security bulletin, 11 of the updates will affect various versions of Windows - from XP to 7 - while the remaining two are aimed at exploits in Office XP and Office 2003 on Windows, and Office 2004 for Mac.

The exact details of the fixes will be kept secret until Tuesday in order to cut down the chances of exploits, however, it's almost certain Microsoft will patch a recently discovered 17-year-old bug in the kernel of all 32-bit versions of Windows that could be used to hijack PCs.

Microsoft issued an advisory on the bug last week, after it was flagged by a Google researcher.

While the number of updates is sure to prove a headache for IT managers, it could have been worse. Only two weeks ago, Microsoft was forced to release an out-of-band update for Internet Explorer to address the flaw used by Chinese hackers to attack Google's servers.

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User comments

Seventeen years to fix bug?

I am so glad I switched from PCs five years ago; they're software is riddled with so many, many bugs and vulnerabilities.

It should also be noted that there is still a recently discovered vulnerability in IE that "allows attackers to view the files held on a victim's machine" according to the BBC. This will not be fixed in this mega patch.

By SwissMac on 5 Feb 2010

I thought the Swiss were neutral? Maybe it's the cheese, the comment is pretty stinky.

By vikarmo on 5 Feb 2010

Sorry, is this the Engadget website....?

What's with all the trolls here lately? Are we receiving an influx of Engadget readers because they switched their comments off for a few days (because of trolling and abuse in their comments)?

Can we please stop spouting fanboistic garbage, we all know EVERY OS and manufacturer have their faults (have you read about the 27" iMacs displays lately, Swiss?). I normally enjoy reading your comments but lets keep them above the level of Jobs disciples.

Thanks.

By mviracca on 6 Feb 2010