Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has released a record-busting crop of 17 security bulletins for December's Patch Tuesday. Up to 40 different vulnerabilities will be addressed, consisting of 17 "critical" and 14 "important" updates, as well as one flagged under the "moderate" label. This is the largest number of security bulletins released by Microsoft in a month, though the 49 vulnerabilities fixed two months back still holds the record in terms of actual security holes.

The 17 security bulletins in December mean that 2010 will see a total bulletin count of 106 from Microsoft--higher than in previous years. Defending the numbers, Mike Reavey, director of the Microsoft Security Response Center, observed that the vulnerability reports in Microsoft products have seen a slight increase this year. Bulletins and vulnerability count aside though, Microsoft confirmed that December's Patch Tuesday will finally resolve the last of four Windows flaws currently being exploited by the Stuxnet worm.

You can access Microsoft's Security Bulletin Advance Notification for December 2010 for more information.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at The Register
- check out this article at Computerworld

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