Microsoft maps out the agenda for its next monthly “Patch Tuesday” update a week ahead of time — giving IT admins a chance to prepare before the patch drop hits. Normally, out of security concerns, Redmond discloses few details about the precise flaws it’s fixing until Patch Tuesday itself. But that’s not the case this time, according to this story from eSecurity Planet.
Microsoft plans to issue six patches that fix a total of a dozen vulnerabilities next week in the next installment of its “Patch Tuesday” roundup of fixes.
As usual, Microsoft so far isn’t revealing much about the exact flaws that it will address next week. The company releases its monthly batch of bug fixes on the second Tuesday of each month–earning the event the nickname of “Patch Tuesday.” On the preceding Thursday, the company sends out an advance notice to IT administrators and other subscribers to give then a general idea of what will be fixed in the following week’s patch drop.
Next week’s patches will target security holes in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), and Microsoft Office products. Three of them are rated at Microsoft’s maximum threat level of “critical,” while the other three rank one tier down at “important.”
“To help customers plan for their deployment of these updates, I want to specifically call out that they touch all supported versions of Windows and IE. On the Office side, the bulletins impact Project, Word ,and Works 8.5. All of the updates for Windows will require a restart, so please plan accordingly,” Microsoft’s Security Response Center team said in a blog post.