Microsoft said it will deliver a record 16 security updates next week to patch a whopping 49 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and SharePoint.
Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle Security, called the massive update "daunting, again."
Four of the 16 updates were tagged with Microsoft's "critical" label, the highest threat ranking in its four-step scoring system. Another 10 were marked "important," the second-highest rating, while the remaining pair were labeled as "moderate."
Nine of the updates could be exploited by attackers to inject malicious code into vulnerable PCs, Microsoft said in its usual bare-bones advance notification of the updates scheduled for release October 12. Microsoft often labels remote code executable bugs -- the most dangerous -- as important when the vulnerable components are not switched on by default or when other mitigating factors, such as defensive measures like ASLR and DEP, may protect some users.
Nine of Tuesday's Windows updates will apply to Windows 7 -- including all three of those marked critical -- while Windows Server 2008 R2 will also receive nine updates, two of them critical.
While Microsoft has touted Windows 7 as its most-secure OS ever, and wants Windows XP users to ditch the nine-year-old software for the new edition, fewer of next week's updates apply to the aged operating system than to Windows 7. XP will be affected by eight of the 13 bulletins, and just two of the three pegged as critical.
The critical IE update will affect IE6, IE7 and IE8. Microsoft did not reply to questions about whether it will also update IE9, which was released as a beta three weeks ago.
Originally posted at PCWorld
