Microsoft to Fix 34 Vulnerabilities in Windows, Office and IE

Microsoft plans  to plug no less than 34 security holes in Windows, office and Internet Explorer come June 8th, 2010. The move is part of the company’s monthly patch cycle scheduled for release on patch-Tuesday, the second Tuesday of every month. There will be a total of 10 security bulletins as a part of the June update release, three of which carry the maximum severity rating of Critical, meaning that they are designed to patch vulnerabilities, which, in the eventuality of a successful exploit could allow attackers to perform remote code execution on a vulnerable system.

“Six of the bulletins affect Windows; of those, two carry a Critical severity rating and four are rated Important. Two bulletins, both with a severity rating of Important, affect Microsoft Office. One bulletin, again with a severity rating of Important, affects both Windows and Office. One bulletin, with a severity rating of Critical, affects Internet Explorer,” revealed Jerry Bryant, group manager, Response Communications.

According to information offered by Microsoft, Windows 7 users will need to deploy no less than seven security bulletins, three of which critical, if the IE patches are also taken into consideration. However, the Redmond will not be providing any patches for Office 2010. Released to manufacturing in April 2010, Office 2010 is not affected by any of the vulnerabilities resolved with the June security bulletin release, otherwise, the software giant would have also released updates for Office 2007’s successor.

“As ever, we recommend that customers prepare for the testing and deployment of these bulletins as soon as possible. We will also be acting on two Security Advisories this month. We are closing Security Advisory 983438 (Vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint Could Allow Elevation of Privilege) with the June bulletins. We are also addressing Security Advisory 980088 (Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Information Disclosure),” Bryant added.

Microsoft Office Word 2010

The Microsoft Office 2010 has been announced by Microsoft after two years of workarounds. Microsoft introduced Word 2010 at a very high-level, and a short summary of what you can expect is given bellow:


The way we work with documents has changed dramatically. In the past, individuals worked on relatively simple, local documents, from their office. Today, it is common for groups to work on rich, shared documents, from anywhere.

Given this shift, Microsoft has focused Word 2010 on dramatically improving document collaboration, graphics, and navigation…and then taking the richness and familiarity of Word, and putting it into the browser and onto the mobile phone. Yes, you heard it right, the Office 2010 also will reveal Web Office 2010.

Dramatically Improved Collaboration, Graphics, and Navigation

Simultaneous editing of Word documents à all the richness of Word with multiple people at the same time. Say goodbye to file in use dialogue. With Word 2010, you can co-author right within Word. You don't need to hassle with email attachments, or documents with names like ASP_final_2_reallyFinal_FINAL.docx. Instead, just open your document, and start co-authoring. You can see who else is working with you, and where they are editing.

Automatic offline editing and synchronizing of shared documents: when you open a shared document, Word automatically caches it so that you can edit it offline, and then Word will automatically sync your changes when you come back online. So if you need to work away from the office, you will no longer need to worry about saving local copies or manually merging your changes into the server document when you get back to your office. Word 2010 takes care of all of that for you.

All sorts of new graphical goodness: Artistic picture effects and easy picture editing, more SmartArt diagrams, and rich graphical and typographic effects on text is another added advantage of Office 2010.

A new navigation pane and search experience: Easily reorganize your document via drag and drop, and find stuff quickly with incremental search. You can stop copying and pasting huge sections of your document, quickly find your way around long documents, and you don't need to know exactly what you are searching for to find it.

Word in Your Browser and on Your Phone: The other big piece of Word 2010 is giving you the power and familiarity of Word everywhere you need it. In short, you will be able to view, navigate, and edit your Word documents from the browser and from your mobile phone without compromising your document's richness.

I know that was really high-level, but hopefully you have a sense for how Word 2010 will dramatically improve how and where you work on documents. Keep watching this space for more on Office 2010 :)