Most consumers haven't even received their Microsoft  Surface tablets yet. But on Patch Tuesday, Redmond will be rolling out a patch for the Windows 8 RT version of its sleek new portable device.
Microsoft will issue six bulletins to address vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft .NET Framework, and Microsoft Office. Four of the bulletins are rated critical, one is rated important and one moderate. And Windows 8 RT is included in the mix.
"It doesn't matter if you're still running Windows XP SP3 or Windows 8 -- it's important to sit up, pay attention, and take action whenever Microsoft issues security updates," Graham Cluley, a senior security analyst at Sophos, wrote in a blog post. "And that's a lesson that users of the new Microsoft Surface tablet are going to have to learn as well if they're going to reduce the chances of an Internet attack being successful."
Impacting Current Gen Products
We caught up with Paul Henry, a security and forensic analyst at Lumension, to get his take on the upcoming bulletins. He told us IT admins may find they don't have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving with a disruptive Patch Tuesday headed their way.
"With 6 Microsoft bulletins, 4 of which are critical and some restarts required, along with a host of other issues, IT can expect a disruptive Patch Tuesday this month," Henry said.
"Right off the top, it's disappointing to see the critical bulletins impacting more than just legacy code as we've come to expect in recent months. These bulletins impact many current generation products and that's concerning. Nothing is ever 100 percent secure and albeit mistakes are made in software . But it's still ugly to see."
Reviewing the Bulletins
Bulletin 1 is an update for IE 9. Henry calls it a pretty standard but critical cumulative IE update as it addresses three vulnerabilities. Although nothing is under active attack, he said it should be considered the highest priority for shops running Windows 7 or Vista.
"Bulletin 5 is an interesting one, because it's a true type font issue. It resolves three vulnerabilities, the worst of which is a remote code execution. Microsoft has been dealing with font issues for a while. True Type Fonts can be embedded all over the place and Windows kernel mode driver renders the font," Henry said. (continued...)
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