Microsoft slates 22 patches for Windows, IE next week

Microsoft today said it will ship 13 security updates next week to patch 22 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, Windows, Visio and Visual Studio.

Next Tuesday's patch lineup is larger than July's on the update count, but matches that month's vulnerability total. That's unusual, since the company usually delivers a heavier load in even-numbered months.

"Twenty-two [vulnerabilities] is not a big month, it's more in the medium range, what with the larger numbers we've seen so far in 2011," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security.

"Overall, it's what we could have expected, although as an 'up' month, the number [of vulnerabilities] isn't up to the usual," said Storms. "The number [of flaws] each month is increasing.... A new baseline is being drawn this year."

In June, for example, Microsoft issued 16 updates -- the company calls them "bulletins" -- that patched 34 bugs. Two months before that, Microsoft fixed 64 flaws with 17 bulletins.

:story: Full story: Computerworld