Microsoft Patches 18 Security Flaws in Windows, Office
Microsoft Corp. today released seven security updates to address 18 separate flaws in its Windows operating systems and Office software, including 13 problems that earned a "critical" severity rating, the company's most dire.
Microsoft labels a security hole as "critical" if it can be used to hijack vulnerable machines without any action on the part of the user. All but two of the flaws addressed in today's patches can be exploited on some version of either Microsoft Office or Windows to let attackers seize total control over a vulnerable system. Three of the patches mend flaws in Microsoft Office, including eight specific to Microsoft Excel. As Security Fix noted in recent posts, software blueprints showing would-be attackers just how to exploit two of these Excel flaws are already available online.
