October '10 Patch Tuesday: Record Breaking 16 Bulletins, 49 Vulnerabilities
Update 13 October: Details on the bulletins Microsoft released are available here .
There are two important dates you need to focus on each and every month. The date when the female presence in your life is close to “that time of the month” and the date when Microsoft will roll out updates for its products. To keep track of when your girlfriend or spouse is getting close to “that time of the month”, you can use PMSbuddy (the site or the iPhone app). Keeping track of when Microsoft rolls out updates is a lot simpler – the Redmond-based software giant rolls out updates every second Tuesday of the month (called Patch Tuesday).
Microsoft rarely rolls out updates outside the Patch Tuesday program. The only time the company releases out-of-band updates is when there’s a serious vulnerability involved, vulnerability that is actively exploited in the wild.
This month, as part of the Patch Tuesday program, Microsoft will roll out a grand total of 16 bulletins which are meant to address a grand total of 49 vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities in question affect the Windows operating system, the Internet Explorer web browser, the Microsoft Office productivity suite, and the .NET Framework. Microsoft rated 4 of the 16 bulletins as critical, 10 as important, and 2 as moderate. All the critical bulletins could lead to remote code execution.
An advance notification for the October 2010 Patch Tuesday has been posted online here .
As a little side note, if you look at this year's Patch Tuesday releases, it’s like looking at a rollercoaster ride. One moth there are numerous bulletins are vulnerabilities, the next month just a few vulnerabilities. Here’s what I am talking about:
The 14 bulletins Microsoft rolled out this August were considered at the time a “record number”. With the October Patch Tuesday, Microsoft managed to break that record.
There are two important dates you need to focus on each and every month. The date when the female presence in your life is close to “that time of the month” and the date when Microsoft will roll out updates for its products. To keep track of when your girlfriend or spouse is getting close to “that time of the month”, you can use PMSbuddy (the site or the iPhone app). Keeping track of when Microsoft rolls out updates is a lot simpler – the Redmond-based software giant rolls out updates every second Tuesday of the month (called Patch Tuesday).
Microsoft rarely rolls out updates outside the Patch Tuesday program. The only time the company releases out-of-band updates is when there’s a serious vulnerability involved, vulnerability that is actively exploited in the wild.
This month, as part of the Patch Tuesday program, Microsoft will roll out a grand total of 16 bulletins which are meant to address a grand total of 49 vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities in question affect the Windows operating system, the Internet Explorer web browser, the Microsoft Office productivity suite, and the .NET Framework. Microsoft rated 4 of the 16 bulletins as critical, 10 as important, and 2 as moderate. All the critical bulletins could lead to remote code execution.
An advance notification for the October 2010 Patch Tuesday has been posted online here .
As a little side note, if you look at this year's Patch Tuesday releases, it’s like looking at a rollercoaster ride. One moth there are numerous bulletins are vulnerabilities, the next month just a few vulnerabilities. Here’s what I am talking about:
- In January Microsoft released just 1 security bulletin (6 vulnerabilities).
- In February Microsoft released a grand total of 13 security bulletins (26 vulnerabilities).
- In March Microsoft released only 2 bulletins (8 vulnerabilities).
- In April Microsoft released a total of 11 bulletins (25 vulnerabilities).
- In May Microsoft released just 2 bulletins (2 vulnerabilities).
- In June Microsoft released a grand total of 10 bulletins (34 vulnerabilities).
- In July Microsoft released only 4 bulletins (5 vulnerabilities).
- In August Microsoft released a grand total of 14 bulletins (34 vulnerabilities).
- In September Microsoft released only 9 bulletins (11 vulnerabilities).
- This October Microsoft will roll out 16 bulletins (49 vulnerabilities).
The 14 bulletins Microsoft rolled out this August were considered at the time a “record number”. With the October Patch Tuesday, Microsoft managed to break that record.
