Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday event offers a degree of certainty to IT and security personnel who can count on the software giant to release the latest fixes to known vulnerabilities in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) software. But there is less certainty in the severity and volume of fixes likely to be revealed on any given month; that’s just the nature of the beast.
For example, after a busy February of patching bugs, security professionals can expect a much easier time of it in March, with a total of three patches coming, only one of which Microsoft rates as “critical,” the company said Thursday.
By contrast, Microsoft released a dozen patches last month that fixed a total of 22 separate security vulnerabilities, making February one of the busiest ever in Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday cycle.
Besides one patch rated critical — the highest severity on Microsoft’s ranking scale — the other two fixes this month are rated “important,” the next step down.
The company is very careful not to provide information that might be useful to hackers until it actually has a fix, so it typically doesn’t disclose the nature of a vulnerability until the day of the release.
Read eSecurity Planet’s report to find out what software will be covered by Microsoft’s next Patch Tuesday release along with other details.