Microsoft, Adobe announce forthcoming patches

Microsoft and Adobe are both planning to release security updates on Tuesday, the companies announced.

As part of its monthly Patch Tuesday updates, Microsoft is readying five security bulletins – all rated “important” – to address 15 vulnerabilities, the company said in its advance notification, released Thursday.

None of the bulletins to be released on Tuesday are rated “critical,” Microsoft's highest level of severity reserved for flaws that could allow the propagation of a worm without user action.

The patches will address flaws that could allow an attacker to elevate privileges or execute remote code on affected systems using Windows and Office, Microsoft said.

Meanwhile, Adobe said it is planning to release on Tuesday critical updates for the Windows and Mac versions of its popular Reader and Acrobat software, as part of its quarterly patch release cycle.

Last month, Microsoft released 13 security bulletins to address 22 flaws. The Redmond, Wash.-based computing giant generally alternates between light and heavy patch loads.

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