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Zero-day fixes star in MS Patch Tuesday

More of the same to come

Microsoft released six bulletins - three covering critical flaws - on Tuesday as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday update cycle.

The releases address two unpatched zero bugs (involving DirectShow and Microsoft Video) that have become the target of hacking attacks over recent weeks but offers only mitigation against a problem with Office Web Components, disclosed on Monday. The third critical vulnerability addressed on Tuesday also involves a vulnerable Windows component, specifically the OpenType Font Engine.

The three other bulletin address lesser "important" risks involving the ISA 2006 proxy server, the Publisher component in the MS Office 2007 suite and Microsoft virtualisation server.

Many of the vulnerabilities tackled by the updates lend themselves to exploitation simply by tricking Windows into visiting a maliciously constructed web site or opening a booby-trapped Office document.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations at security and compliance firm nCircle, commented: "Microsoft has released updates that address two of three critical zero-day exploits this month. We can, however, anticipate a more complete patch for ActiveX later, since today's update from Microsoft only issues a killbit on the ActiveX control."

"Essentially, Microsoft opted to disable the functionality... but hasn't fixed the underlying vulnerability," he added.

The Internet Storm Centre's summary of July's releases can be found here. Microsoft bulletin is here.

Microsoft's bulletin on Tuesday coincided with the latest edition of Oracle's quarterly update, making it an extremely busy day for sys admins. Oracle's update contains 30 security fixes across its full range of products as outlined here. ®

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