IE security hole sewn up for Patch Tuesday

It's that time of the month. Again

Microsoft is planning eight security updates next week – two critical – as part of its regular Patch Tuesday programme.

The obvious highlight of the batch is a critical update for Internet Explorer that affects all supported versions of Microsoft's ubiquitous web browser, including IE 9. The second critical update covers flaws in Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Silverlight that create a possible mechanism for miscreants to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems.

The remaining six updates address lesser Windows vulnerabilities in Microsoft Forefront and Host Integration server. All six of these updates are rated as "important" and not all of them apply to all configurations. "IT administrators will have to evaluate to what degree they affect their networks, servers and workstation," according to Wolfgang Kandek, CTO at security services firm Qualys.

As usual, more details on the flaws will emerge once Microsoft has published its patches on Tuesday. In the meantime all we have to go on is Redmond's pre-release notice here. ®