Microsoft Patch Tuesday: May 11th 2010
On Tuesday May 11th Microsoft released another round of updates for the Windows Operating System. Here’s what they are and what they do:
SECURITY UPDATES:
Update: MS10-030/KB978542
Type: Critical
Affected Systems: XP, 7, 2003, 3008, 2008 R2, Outlook Express 5.5 and 6.0 for 2000
What it does: Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Windows Live Mail programs all have a vulnerability which can lead to a remote code execution attack, which would be executed by a remote email server.
Suggestion: Microsoft rates this as “critical” and you should treat it like that unless you don’t use Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail on a daily basis, but it you don’t then I think you could wait to install it until you next scheduled patch day for your company.
Size: 1.1MB – 4.7MB
Update:MS10-031/KB978213/KB976321
Type: Critical
Affected Systems: Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007
What it does: There is a problem with the VBA runtime that can allow an attacker to use a programmed document to perform remote code execution on the system. This affects Office and any other application which uses VBA.
Suggestion: Being that this affects Office applications, I suggest you install this update immediately.
Size: 1.3MB – 2.7MB
MISC UPDATES
Update:KB890830
Type: “Important”
Affected Systems: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003
What it does: It updates the definition to remove Malicious Software, Microsoft updates this every second Tuesday of the month.
Suggestion: If you have another anti-spyware/anti-maleware software then this isn’t a pressing update, though if you have nothing, then I recommend to install this as soon as you can.
Size: 9.7MB – 10.0MB
Update:KB981726/KB905866
Type: “Important”
Affected Systems: Office 2007 Junk E-mail Filter
What it does: This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with a more current definition of those characteristics that define certain e-mail messages as junk e-mail
Suggestion: I think at this time, most people use something else to filter their mail so this isn’t important, install during you next massive update.
Size: 5.4MB
If I missed anything please let me know, but this is a good start on getting to know the updates that everyone should see and help some people plan when they should run their updates.