Nine Fixes Planned For Patch Tuesday

Microsoft has a big batch of fixes in store for next week’s Patch Tuesday, more so than last month’s haul. In an alert sent out to customers and systems administrators, the company reported it would issue nine security bulletins, a bump over the six issued last month.

Of the nine fixes, six are labeled as “critical,” the most important rating on Microsoft’s  urgency scale. It’s used to describe the most severe vulnerabilities, such as those that would let someone take over a machine. The remaining three are labeled as “important,” which means the problems they fix are significant.

Of the six critical bulletins, five are in Windows, two in Internet Explorer, one each in XML Core Services and Office, and one in Office for the Macintosh. A security bulletin does not necessarily mean one fix. This month, four of the six critical bulletins affect multiple products.

The three important-rated bulletins affect Windows, Vista and Virtual PC/Virtual Server. The two Windows bulletins address remote code execution problems while the Virtual PC/Virtual Server fix covers an elevation of privilege.

Microsoft did not say if the two Vista updates released this past week, designed to address performance and application compatibility, will be a part of the patch.

As is tradition, Microsoft will host a webcast the following day, Wednesday August 15, at 11 a.m. PST.