Microsoft To Release Five Critical Patches Tuesday

Microsoft will roll out a total of five critical patches for numerous versions of Windows operating systems in its upcoming September "Patch Tuesday" security update release, according to a Microsoft Advanced Notification bulletin posted Thursday.

All five patches plug holes that allow remote code execution, indicating that hackers could remotely exploit the vulnerabilities by launching malicious code to infiltrate users' PCs. Hackers often execute information-stealing malware for identity-theft activities, typically enticing users to click on infected links or visit a malicious site through some kind of social engineering scheme.

Of the five critical patches Microsoft plans to release, two require mandatory restarts, which is anticipated to cause some level of enterprise disruption, experts said.

Altogether, the patches target several versions of Windows, including Windows 2000, XP and Vista, as well as all three of Microsoft's server platforms 2000, 2003 and 2008. However, security experts speculate on whether the current critical patch load will also include fixes for Windows 7, scheduled for release Oct. 22, in light of the fact that the soon-to-be-released operating system shares a significant amount of code with Windows Vista.

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