Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9.0.1) Released to Patch IE9 RTW Vulnerabilities

Microsoft has started distributing a new version on Internet Explorer 9 through Windows Update. IE 9.0.1 is being pushed automatically to all IE9 RTW customers through WU since the new release is nothing more than the first security update for Internet Explorer 9. The first patch package for IE9 comes as a part of the June 2011 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, which the software giant is serving via WU.

Obviously, the IE security bulletin is designed to address vulnerabilities in all supported releases of Internet Explorer. In total, the Redmond company plugged no less than seven security holes in IE.

“The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user visits a malicious, specially crafted Web page using IE,” noted Vishwac Sena Kannan, Program Manager, Internet Explorer.

“Users who run without administrative rights are more secure in general and should be less impacted than other users (…). This security update is rated Critical for IE6, 7, 8, and 9 on Windows clients.”

Following the installation of the June 2011 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, customers currently running IE9 RTW will be able to see that the version number for their copy of the browser was kicked up a notch to 9.0.1.

This versioning change will have no impact on IE9, save for the fact that it will signal that the browser is up to date with the latest patches in place.

“Every Microsoft update has an associated article (e.g. KB2530548) with technical details about fixes included in the release. These updates are “cumulative,” so the latest update represents all the fixes to date,” Kannan explained.

“As we update IE9, we will include a link to that article for the release. We will also update the version number of IE to reflect these changes. The major and minor version numbers remain 9.0; today we increment the update revision to 1. Note that there is no change to the User-Agent string or other platform versioning information.”

As it’s usually the case, with IE 9.0.1 distributed automatically through WU, customers with Automatic Updates enabled will not need to take any actions to download and deploy the update.

Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) Platform Preview 1 (PP1) is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 is available for download here.