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MS preps 5 Windows critical fixes for busy Patch Tuesday

25 fixes overall

Microsoft has lined up 11 patches that collectively address 25 security vulnerabilities as part of its April Patch Tuesday security update.

Five of the scheduled patches fix critical flaws, all involving Windows vulnerabilities. All supported versions of Windows are addressed by this much heavier than usual update batch. "Important" patches for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange are also being loaded up for delivery next week.

Microsoft is due to fix two open zero-day vulnerabilities, notes Wolfgang Kandek, CTO at vulnerability scanning services firm Qualys. These are the F1 attack through Internet Explorer and the SMBv2 Denial of Service vulnerability, which only affects Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

A run-down of the fixes can be found in Microsoft's pre-bulletin here.

Critical updates from Adobe are also due next Tuesday, fixing well-publicised flaws in the company's Reader PDF client software.

The Adobe updates are due as part of a quarterly patch batch. More and more vendors have begun updating regular patching cycles, either monthly or quarterly, to help sysadmins predict and manage patching workloads. In the latest move in this industry-wide trend, Oracle announced on Thursday that it had moved Solaris updates onto its pre-existing quarterly security patch release schedule.

Around a third (16 out of 47) of the vulnerabilities Oracle plans to address next Tuesday involve Sun Solaris. Eight might be remotely exploitable without authentication - the most serious category. Other patches fix flaws in Oracle's database products, collaboration suite and e-commerce software, as explained in a bulletin here. ®

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