Microsoft is planning to release nine bulletins, addressing 21 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, .NET framework and Silverlight. The patches are scheduled to be released Feb. 14.
The software giant said that four of the bulletins are listed as “critical,” and three of those, all of which affect Windows, will require a restart. The critical bulletins address errors in Windows, Internet Explorer and server-side software. They all are said to address vulnerabilities that would allow remote code execution.
Flaws of this type are best addressed sooner rather than later because they might easily be exploited by malware slingers.
Patching IE ought to be be the highest priority, according to vulnerability scanning and web services firm Qualys.
“[W]e saw last month how quickly attackers are incorporating browser-based attacks into their toolkits; an exploit for MS12-004 was detected a mere 15 days after Patch Tuesday,”notes Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, in a blog post on the upcoming patch batch.
The remaining five bulletins are listed as “important” and deal with both remote code execution and elevation of privileges. They apply to Microsoft Widows, Office and Server Software.
The February Advanced Notification also stated that the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool would be updated on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services, and the Download Center. Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Security Response Communications Manager, Angela Gunn, said details about risk, impact analysis, deployment guidance and a video overview of the release would be available on their blog Tuesday.
Andrew Storms, director of security operations at net security firm nCircle, said all supported versions of Windows will need patching. Oddly the most recent versions of Windows – which normally need the least patching – are the most affected by the February 2012 patch batch, he added.
“It’s surprising that this month’s patch affects almost every Windows operating system – each OS is affected by five of the eight applicable bulletins. That’s kind of weird because newer OS versions are generally more secure.”
“It’s even more surprising that Windows Server 2008 R2 is affected by the greatest number of bulletins. Generally, we see fewer bugs on server side operating systems, and this is doubly true for Server 2008 since so many of its newer mitigations and default settings protect the OS even when bugs are found,” he added.