Microsoft Releases September's Security Bulletins

September is without a doubt a quiet month for Microsoft, at least as security is involved. The Redmond Company's Patch Tuesday program, scheduled for September 12, brought less than a fist full of patches. In this context, notable is the absence of an update to plug the zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2000. And while it is possible for the software giant to release an out-of-cycle security update strictly dependent on the severity of the exploits related to the zero-day flaw, in actuality, the company is not likely to diverge from its monthly release process, which means that a fix will be provided in October.

While this summer was synonymous with a black period for Microsoft's security, with a total of 31 updates addressing 62 vulnerabilities, the Redmond Company delivered yesterday only three security bulletins. Microsoft Publisher, the Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) and the Indexing Service were the products targeted.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-054 for Publisher is the most severe of the three, as it accounted for the rating of critical and could open the door for remote code executions. Microsoft Security Bulletins MS06-052 and MS06-053 for Pragmatic General Multicast and the Indexing Service were considered important and moderate as their impact is less severe, although the first being susceptible to remote code executions and as the second only permitted cross-site scripting.

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