Microsoft's Patch Tuesday will have five critical Windows and IE fixes

SOFTWARE COBBLER Microsoft said that it will issue at least 12 bulletins next week in its monthly security update.

The company said that the Patch Tuesday release will include five fixes rated as critical and seven rated as important. The update will address a total of 57 different security issues.

Among the products that will be receiving the critical bulletins are Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer and Exchange.

While Microsoft did not disclose the nature of the flaws, the company said that the Internet Explorer update will be considered critical for all versions of the web browser, while the Windows patches will be critical only for releases prior to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

Critical ratings are most often applied to flaws that are vulnerable to remote exploit by an attacker and allow for the execution of malicious code without user interaction or notification.

Important flaws generally address code execution flaws which are more difficult to exploit and lower-risk conditions such as denial of service, information disclosure and elevation of privileges.

"This month we see some significant vulnerabilities with the potential to create a formidable one-two punch, which could be key to hackers unleashing powerful attacks," noted Core Security senior product manager Alex Horan.

"When these exploits are used in the right combination, the effects can mean big headaches for system administrators."

Microsoft said that the Patch Tuesday release will go live at 10am Pacific time/6pm GMT. µ

This article was originally published on V3.