Network Security, Patch/Configuration Management, Vulnerability Management

Light patch load to start year from Microsoft

IT administrators are expected to have just one security update to deal with on Tuesday, when Microsoft delivers its monthly round of fixes.

The single patch addresses at least one vulnerability in Windows, according to the company's advance notification bulletin. The patch takes on a "critical" rating for all supported Windows versions, except Vista and Server 2008, where it carries a "moderate" designation.

"This tells us [the flaw] is in the older code base," Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of vulnerability management firm Qualys, told SCMagazineUS.com on Thursday.

He said IT staffs will appreciate the light load -- especially after a December mammoth update that dropped eight fixes for 28 vulnerabilities -- but he was surprised next week's update will not include a fix for the recently announced flaw in SQL server.

"I would've expected them to come out with something there," he said.

Microsoft did include workarounds in its SQL Server Security Advisory.

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