Microsoft has a special patch Thursday

Microsoft has released a whole bunch of hofixes for all Windows OS yesterday (today for us Easterlings).  Unlike the normal MS security bulletins, this batch of patches which include critical and important hotfix has been released under the ‘Security Bulletin Summary for December 2011’ MS-dec11 (version 2.0).

The patches cover almost all the Microsoft software with critical, important or moderate hotfixes for both 32 bit and 64 bits editions of:

• all active Windows OS - Windows XP, Vista, 7, Server 2003 & 2008; 
• Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 & 9;
• .NET framework 1.1, 2, 3.5 & 4;
• Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, 2010;
• Microsoft Office 2004 & 2008 for Mac, MS Office for Mac 2011 including some File format convertors & compatibility packs.

The range of patches address bugs in the OS and allied MS software that could allow an attacker to gain elevated privileges on infected systems and propagate a worm without user knowing about it.
Belarc Advisor as of this post is not reflecting the latest (above) patches on its scan.  So if your PC (or Mac) is not enabled with Automatic Updates, get those fixes and patch your PC.  Be sure to check the ‘Table 2’ at the Security Bulletin MS-dec11 page which lists patches for IE & .NET.

BTW this bulletin includes an update for the KB 2639417 which was patched in the last ‘patch Tuesday’ fixes.

The list of KB numbers for WinXP-32 bit systems are:

• KB2618451
• KB2619339
• KB2620712
• KB2624667
• KB2626416
• KB2633171
• KB2639417

Have fun getting your PC ready for the New Year!

My Humorous side hastens, ‘Now I’ve my job cut out for the New Year’s weekend.  Should have enough time to update the XP_only_OS files till Dec 2011 hotfixes!’
:-D

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