Microsoft plans to release four security bulletins next Tuesday as part of the September edition of its monthly Patch Tuesday update cycle.

The four slated updates - all described by Redmond as critical - covering remote code injection risks affecting Media Player, Windows Media Encoder, Office, and Windows. All supported version of Windows - including Vista - will need patching.

Redmond also plans to update its malicious software removal tool next Tuesday (9 September). More details of the security bugs addressed by the patches will accompany their availability.

For now all we can say is the patch load for September is a fair bit less than the bumper crop covered by last month's update (11 bulletin - six covering critical flaws). A Media Player update, promised but delayed from last month due to last minute quality issues, is due to arrive next Tuesday instead.

Microsoft pre-alerts can be found here. ®

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