November 09 Patch Tuesday: 6 Security Bulletins, 15 Vulnerabilities

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 06 Nov 2009

Next week’s first two days are already booked. On Monday, the 9th of November, we will be celebrating Firefox’s 5th anniversary. On Tuesday, we will focus on something less entertaining, mainly patching our Microsoft products. As part of the Patch Tuesday program (updates are released each month, on the second Tuesday), Redmond-based software giant will release 6 security bulletins that address a total of 15 vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities affect the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office productivity suite.

“To help customers plan and prioritize for this month’s security updates, we wanted to let you know that we will be releasing 6 bulletins (three critical and three important) addressing 15 vulnerabilities, affecting Windows and Microsoft Office products. Customers should plan a restart for the Windows bulletins. The Office bulletins may not require a restart if the components being updated are not in use. More information about the upcoming security updates can be found on the TechNet Web site,” announced Jerry Bryant on behalf of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

Here is what we know so far about the 6 security bulletins Microsoft will roll out this Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 10:00 a.m. PST (UTC -8). Bulletins 1 through 3 apply to the Microsoft developed Windows operating system. The vulnerabilities are critical; they allow for remote code execution. After the update has been applied, the user has to restart the PC. Bulletin 4 also affects the Windows OS, but is rated as important (denial of service). It too requires a restart. Bulletins 5 and 6 are rated important, allow for remote code execution, require restart and apply to Microsoft Office.

The good news is that none of the 6 security bulletins, none of the 15 vulnerabilities these bulletins cover affect the latest version of the Windows-based operating system, Windows 7. The vulnerabilities plague these windows versions: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. They plague these versions of the Microsoft Office productivity suite: Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007, and Office for Mac.

We’ll have more info on these security bulletins and the vulnerabilities they address after Microsoft releases the Patch Tuesday update.

UPDATE Wed 11.11.09: More details are avaialable here .



Latest News


Sony's 'Attack of the Blockbusters Sale' Slashes Prices in Half for a Ton of PS4 Games

17 Aug 2017

How Samsung's New T5 Compares to the Old T3 Portable SSD (Infographic)

17 Aug 2017

See all