Microsoft is planning to release six bulletins during next week's monthly security update.

The company said that the March edition of Patch Tuesday would include fixes for flaws in Microsoft Windows, Visual Studio and Expression design.

The lone 'critical' bulletin will address an unspecified remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The company has maintained the top security rating for all currently supported editions of Windows and Windows Server.

Considered to be the most serious of all software vulnerabilities, remote code execution flaws can be exploited by hackers to install malware on a targeted system without user warning or interaction.

In addition to the critical fix, the company is planning to release two bulletins for Windows rated as 'important' risks. The patches will address elevation of privilege and denial of service vulnerabilities.

The fourth fix will address a 'moderate' flaw in Windows which could be exploited by an attacker in a denial of service attack.

The remaining two flaw address 'important' issues, including a remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Expression Design and an elevation of privilege flaw in Visual Studio.

Other platforms, including Microsoft Office and MacOS X software editions, were not listed in the advance notification update. The company has, on rare occasions, inserted or removed updates between the posting of the advance notice and the release of the update.

Microsoft is set to release the flaw on 13 March.

V3.co.uk