Next week's Patch Tuesday from Microsoft will include updates fixing a host of critical vulnerabilities in products that include Windows, Office and Exchange.

In all, Microsoft will release seven bulletins. They include:

• Two affecting Windows with the maximum severity rating being critical
• Three affecting Office with the maximum severity rating being critical
• One affecting Exchange with the maximum severity rating being critical
• One affecting CAPICOM and BizTalk with the maximum severity rating being critical.

As usual, Microsoft will also push an updated version of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, according to the company's Security Bulletin Advance Notification (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/advance.mspx) site.

Microsoft isn't specifying what vulnerabilities will be fixed, but it's reasonable conjecture that one update will patch a DNS flaw in Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 that has been actively exploited (http://www.theregister.com/2007/04/13/windows_dns_flaw/) for the past three weeks. ®

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