November 2011 Patch Tuesday: 4 Bulletins, 4 Vulnerabilities
Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has recently announced that next week, as part of the Patch Tuesday program, it will roll out a four security bulletins. The aforementioned bulletins are meant to plug four security holes that plague the Windows operating system. An advance notification for the November 2011 Patch Tuesday has been posted online here.
Out of the four security bulletins that Microsoft will release on Tuesday, the 8th of November, only one carries the critical rating, the most severe rating Microsoft uses. Speaking of which, Microsoft uses the critical rating when it deals with a vulnerability whose exploitation could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action. Right now we don’t have any more info on this bulletin or on the vulnerability it fixes.
Out of the remaining three bulletins, two carry the important rating. This severity rating is used by Microsoft when it deals with a vulnerability whose exploitation could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of users data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources.
The last bulletin, the fourth one, carries the moderate rating. This rating is used by Microsoft when exploiting the vulnerability is mitigated to a significant degree by factors such as default configuration, auditing, or difficulty of exploitation.
As part of the Patch Tuesday program, Microsoft releases security patches for its products every second Tuesday of the month. Each time, the patches are released at about 10AM P.T. Before each Patch Tuesday, Microsoft releases an advance notification to let those interested know how many bulletins will be released and how many vulnerabilities will be addressed. The link to the advanced notification for November 2011 Patch Tuesday is in the first paragraph above. After the bulletins are released, Microsoft updates the advance notification to add more info on the bulletins and the vulnerabilities it addresses.
Out of the four security bulletins that Microsoft will release on Tuesday, the 8th of November, only one carries the critical rating, the most severe rating Microsoft uses. Speaking of which, Microsoft uses the critical rating when it deals with a vulnerability whose exploitation could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action. Right now we don’t have any more info on this bulletin or on the vulnerability it fixes.
Out of the remaining three bulletins, two carry the important rating. This severity rating is used by Microsoft when it deals with a vulnerability whose exploitation could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of users data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources.
The last bulletin, the fourth one, carries the moderate rating. This rating is used by Microsoft when exploiting the vulnerability is mitigated to a significant degree by factors such as default configuration, auditing, or difficulty of exploitation.
As part of the Patch Tuesday program, Microsoft releases security patches for its products every second Tuesday of the month. Each time, the patches are released at about 10AM P.T. Before each Patch Tuesday, Microsoft releases an advance notification to let those interested know how many bulletins will be released and how many vulnerabilities will be addressed. The link to the advanced notification for November 2011 Patch Tuesday is in the first paragraph above. After the bulletins are released, Microsoft updates the advance notification to add more info on the bulletins and the vulnerabilities it addresses.
