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Patch Tuesday: A Pair of Critical Fixes

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 by Matt Hymel

Microsoft issued its round of vulnerability fixes today, including two critical plugs. According to ZDNet.com, the most serious issue, which can be found under this security bulletin, affects Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail.

The "critical" rating means that a successful attack could give a hacker access to a compromised computer, specifically for users running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. Windows 7, however, is not affected.

Computerworld.com points out that a light Patch Tuesday in May most likely means a heavy June. According to a lead security research engineer Tyler Reguly, "it's the month of insignificant patches."

While Reguly placed the bulletin above as the most important patch, Wolfgang Kandek, a chief technology officer at Qualys, believes the counterpart, or Bulletin 031, is actually the more 'interesting' vulnerability. He explains that "the attack vector (for this second vulnerability) through Offices makes (a threat) much more likely because it is like any normal attack vector."

With such a poor showing, "we should expect another big month next month," Reguly added. Remember, Microsoft issued 11 updates for 25 vulnerabilities last month, which is a far cry from the 2 holes this month. 

Microsoft's next scheduled patch day is June 8th.

 

Until Next Time -

Matthew Hymel

 

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