Security fixes for Internet Explorer, Exchange coming Tuesday

Microsoft next week is scheduled to release seven patches to cover 11 security vulnerabilities, the software giant announced Thursday.

As part of its monthly security update, Microsoft on Tuesday will offer five fixes rated "critical" and two others deemed "important."

Researchers who reviewed Microsoft's advance notification advisory said two of the patches stood out in terms of potential impact to an organization if they fail to quickly deploy them.

The first is a fix that rectifies vulnerabilities across all supported versions of Internet Explorer. Attackers could leverage the flaws to spread classic client-side exploits to users, without them needing to take any action.

This is a "very attractive exploit [for] attackers to have," Alex Horan, senior product manager of Core Security, which provides penetration testing services, said in prepared comments emailed to SCMagazine.com.

The other patch to take note off involves a critical vulnerability in Exchange 2007 and 2010 that could permit remote code execution.

"This could be a tricky decision for businesses focused on year-end revenue because patching the bug may cause some [email] downtime as the year comes to a close," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at vulnerability management firm nCircle, in prepared comments. "Each individual business will have to decide if the risk of downtime is greater than the risk of being vulnerable."

Tuesday's update also will see fixes for bugs in Windows and Word.