14 DAY TRIAL // Customers running Windows 7 will not have to deploy any patches next week, on Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, the company revealed. In fact, no security bulletins for Windows will be released on November 9th, 2010, which means that Windows XP and Windows Vista users will also not have to plug any security holes in their operating systems, just as it is the case for Windows 7.
However, there will be security updates coming from Microsoft in November 2010, but they will be focused entirely on Office and Forefront Unified Access Gateway.
“This time around we’re releasing three updates addressing 11 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office and Unified Access Gateway (UAG). One bulletin carries a Critical severity rating; the other two are rated Important,” explained Angela Gunn, PR Manager, Response Communications.
While there will be no Windows security updates, users running the Office productivity suite will have to patch their solution.
Security bulletins will be offered for Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010. In addition, the software giant is gearing up to release the first patch for the recently released Office for Mac 2011.
Unlike Office for Mac 2011, its Windows equivalent Office 2010 survived a few months on the market without receiving a single security update.
There will also be a patch package for Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010, Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 Update 1 and Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 Update 2.
Internet Explorer will not receive any patches as a part of the normal security updates release process this month.
However, with a new Critical 0-day vulnerability made public for IE, and with all versions preceding Internet Explorer 9 affected, Microsoft might just release an out of band patch.
Still, this will only happen if the exploit attempts targeting the vulnerability increase in number. For the time being this is not the case, as Microsoft only detected limited and targeted attacks.
“When customers buy Microsoft software, it includes high-quality security updates to be provided via predictable monthly bulletin releases, helping to protect their computing experience over time.
“As always, we recommend that customers review the ANS summary page for more information and prepare for the testing and deployment of these bulletins as soon as possible,” Gunn added.