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Nine Security Fixes Coming on Patch Tuesday

(Ed's Note: The patches are now available. See story at http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?editorialsid=6979.)

Get ready for a huge Microsoft Patch Tuesday next week. The Microsoft Security Response Center is preparing nine security bulletins, according to its Thursday night advance notification e-mail.

It's not clear from the wording of the notification how many of the bulletins will address critical issues. Microsoft lumped the bulletins into two groups -- eight bulletins affecting Windows and one bulletin affecting both Windows and Microsoft Exchange. Of the eight Windows bulletins, the notification e-mail says, "The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical." The Windows-Exchange vulnerability has a maximum severity rating of "important."

Due to problems found in testing or other issues, the MSRC sometimes releases a different number of bulletins on Patch Tuesday than it anticipates in the notification that goes out the previous Thursday.

The busy Tuesday coming next week follows a familiar boom-and-bust cycle the MSRC has displayed since it moved to a once-a-month patch process. Last month there were no security patches from Microsoft after the MSRC decided at the last minute to cancel release of a critical Windows security patch due to a quality problem.

Microsoft customers will also see an update of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Tuesday. There will be no non-security high-priority updates next week on Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services or Software Update Services.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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