Ahh yes, the second Tuesday of the month and Microsoft releases patches. This month is a big month for it again with 10 patches, 6 of them marked as critical. So what do we have patched this time?

1) Active Directory. It seems that there are holes in Active Directory’s security that can allow remote code execution. Definitely do some testing on this patch, but try to roll it out as quickly as possible. This does affect 2000, 2003, and XP

2) Print Spooler. A patch that closes up 3 vulnerabilities that could allow remote code execution. Another one that should be rolled out as quickly as possible. I have not heard of code in the wild on this, but you know how quickly people will jump on such a critical system hole.

3) Internet Explorer. Big surprise here as IE seems to get a patch at least every other month. Considering that Microsoft was able to compromise Firefox’s security with a .Net add on for it, the holes in IE need to get patched up as quickly as possible.

4) Word, Excell, Works. I hope you aren’t using Works, but with Word and Excel, test these and then deploy, even though they are marked as critical.

Those are the Critical’s as decided by Microsoft. Interestingly the Direct X vulnerability, which does have code exploiting it in the wild, has no patch whatsoever, and no sign that Microsoft is going to patch that hole anytime soon. Again a concern where Microsoft is concerned, but not surprising considering the amount of resources working on Windows 7, and the amount of reported vulnerabilities Microsoft must receive every month. More information on the Microsoft patches can be found here.

Also, Adobe released a patch to address a number of vulnerabilities that have been found in its Acrobat Reader. Information on that can be found here.

Yep, a busy Patch Tuesday, so go get them, test em, and deploy em. And if you find a problem with any of the patches, or caused by them, let me know.