Patch Tuesday

Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft plans to ship seven patches closing security holes in the Windows operating system and Microsoft developer tools and software in its first Patch Tuesday release of 2012.
The company fixed vulnerabilities in all versions of the Windows operating system, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, according to Microsoft's advance notification announcement released Jan. 5. Only one of the seven bulletins is rated "critical," and the remaining ones are rated "important." The critical bulletin, which fixes a remote code execution issue in Media Player, can be downgraded to "important" for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 users, according to the advisory.
Microsoft is expected to release the updates for January's Patch Tuesday on Jan. 10.
Six of the bulletins fixed holes in various versions of Windows, and only one would cover Microsoft Developer Tools. "Windows 7 and 2008 R2 have less exposure" as two of the bulletins don't apply to them at all, according to Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys.

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• Patch Tuesday heads-up: Windows security holes (zdnet.com)
• January 2012 Patch Tuesday Preview (laws.qualys.com)