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Microsoft Plans Nine for September Patch Tuesday
For the second month in a row, Microsoft will be rolling out a heavier than usual patch load of nine.
The monthly patch updates include four security updates deemed "critical" and five are labeled "important."
"I expect some of the bulletins to address DLL Hijacking issues in Microsoft's own products, but it will be interesting to see if Microsoft will change its guidance for the recent hotfix (KB2264107)," said Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer of Qualy, Inc. "Currently, it is only at the advisory level that users have to make an active decision to get protection against DLL Hijacking in third-party applications."
All but two of the nine patches will have remote code execution (RCE) risk considerations, with the remaining two relating to the elevation of privilege threats. The patches will cover 13 vulnerabilities in total.
Critical Patches
The first critical update will be a Windows fix for every supported OS, while the second fix will affect every OS except Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.
The third critical item is a combination Office- and OS-level fix for Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3, Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 and Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2. The fourth critical item will also be an Office fix and will affect the same versions.
Important Patches
Every important bulletin covers Windows OS-level threats.
The first important item will cover every supported Windows OS, while the second patch will only affects XP and Windows Server 2003.
Important patch No. 3 will also be a Windows fix and cover XP and Windows Server 2003.
Just as with the first patch, the fourth important item will cover every supported OS and the fifth and final patch in this category will only stave off bugs for XP and Windows Server 2003.
Every patch on the slate may require a restart.
Windows IT pros can, as usual, check this Knowledge Base article for non-security updates rolled out through Windows Server Update Services, Windows Update and Microsoft Update services.
As with last month, Windows XP SP2 users do not have any patches supplied to them, said Kandek.
"Even though the majority of updates for XP SP3 most likely apply to their discontinued version of the OS as well, Windows XP SP2 users should upgrade to SP3 as quickly as possible," added Kandek.
About the Author
Jabulani Leffall is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the Financial Times of London, Investor's Business Daily, The Economist and CFO Magazine, among others.