Yesterday's Patch Tuesday turned out to be a bumper edition as Microsoft issued 11 security bulletins addressing some 25 vulnerabilities across its Windows, Office and Exchange products.
Of the 11 bulletins, five are identified as critical - Microsoft's most severe vulnerability rating - and the software flaws could allow for attackers to execute remote code through popular applications such as Windows Media Player.
What's interesting is that Microsoft has also used the security bulletins as a means to illustrate the benefits of upgrading to the company's latest software releases. The below table, provided by Microsoft, illustrates that Windows 7 is far less susceptible to identified threats than Windows XP.
Microsoft's security updates are now available via Windows Update, and the software giant recommends that "customers deploy all security updates as soon as possible."
"However, Microsoft's guidance on deployment priority is that customers should consider MS10-019, MS10-026, and MS10-027 as the top priority bulletins for April," adds the company in a statement.
The latest batch of updates could prove to be troublesome for IT administrators as the majority of the patches will require a system reboot.
Making matters worse for IT administrators, Microsoft's bumper update coincides with quarterly updates from Adobe, who yesterday issued critical updates to address 15 vulnerabilities in its Reader and Acrobat applications, and Oracle, who at the same time issued a critical patch update containing 47 security fixes across a wide range of products.
