14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is gearing up for another round of patches next week, per the company’s normal security update release cycle. Despite the small number of July 2011 Security Bulletins, the Redmond company will patch over 20 vulnerabilities in its main cash cows, the Windows operating systems and the Office productivity suite.
In total, no less than 22 security holes will be plugged with the updates scheduled for release on July 12, 2011.
In total, the software giant will make available four security bulletins next week, three of which targeting Windows, with the remaining patch package impacting Office.
Only a single one of the security updates planned for release next week carries the maximum severity rating of Critical from Microsoft, and will most likely need to be a priority in terms of deployment for customers worldwide.
According to information supplied by the company, Windows 7 SP1 is affected by vulnerabilities patched with all three July 2011 Windows security bulletins.
There is no telling just how large is the volume of flaws in Windows 7 SP1, but the Critical updates target vulnerabilities in Windows Vista and its predecessor, which indicates that only a post Windows XP feature of the platform is impacted, and only on the client side.
The remaining two security bulletins for Windows 7 as well as other supported versions of the OS are considered to pose an inferior risk to customers and have thus received an inferior rating, only Important.
Customers running Office will have a light month, patch-wise. The only Office security bulletin, which is rated Important, impacts only users leveraging Visio 2003 Service Pack 3.
According to Microsoft, with the exception of the July 2011 Windows patches, Office 2010 and Office 2007 customers will not be required to apply any security updates for their respective versions of the productivity suite.