Mega Patch Tuesday coming next week

Microsoft will be going on a mega security update spree next Tuesday, with 13 security bulletins all lined up. What is significant about this update is that a large percentage--eight of them--were rated as "critical," as well as the sheer number of bulletins.

To understand the significance here, the 13 bulletins for next week's Patch Tuesday will trump previous records achieved in February 2007, and again in October 2008. According to reports, the upcoming update is inclusive of two previously known critical Windows bulletins--including a serious flaw in Microsoft's Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. An older problem with the FTP service in Microsoft IIS will also be rectified.

A total of 34 vulnerabilities will be addressed in all, for products such as Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, and SQL Server, among others.

One point to note for security administrators and IT managers for the upcoming Patch Tuesday will be the need to perform a restart, an important fact to know where servers are concerned. In a blog entry, Jerry Bryant of the Microsoft Security Response Center team wrote, "Most of these updates require a restart so please factor that into your deployment planning."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek
- check out this article at Computerworld

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