Patches for 34 Flaws in Windows, Office, IE, SQL, and Silverlight Set New Record for Microsoft

Microsoft will release patches for no less than 34 security vulnerabilities in a range of its products next week. The Redmond company revealed that it plans to introduce no less than 14 security bulletins as a part of its normal patch cycle, with the June security bulletin release scheduled for Tuesday, August 10. The upcoming availability of the massive number of security bulletins will mark a new record for the Redmond company, as the software giant has never released 14 patch packages in a single month before. “For those who keep track of such things, this will be the most bulletins we have ever released in a month; we have released 13 bulletins on a couple of occasions. However, in total CVE count, this release ties with June 2010, so there's no new record there,” revealed Angela Gunn, Security Response Communications Manager. No less than 12 of the upcoming security bulletins (including updates designed to plug holes in Internet Explorer and Silverlight) will impact supported versions of Windows, while the remaining two are focused on the Office productivity suite. “This month's release is composed of 14 bulletins addressing 34 vulnerabilities in Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, SQL, and Silverlight. Eight of the bulletins carry a Critical severity rating, and six are rated Important,” Gunn added. Out of the 8 Critical security bulletins which are planned for release next week, no less than 7 are focused on Windows, and just 1 on Office. At the same time, the August 2010 security bulletins release doesn’t target Office 2010. This is yet another month when the latest iteration of the Office productivity suite manages to dodge patches, as it doesn’t include the vulnerable code patched for older versions of the product. Not the same can be said about Windows 7. Users of the latest version of the Windows client will need to apply no less than four Critical security bulletins, and another five Important patch packages. In contrast seven Critical bulletins will be issued for Windows XP SP3, and just four for Windows Vista.