Microsoft Rolls Out Fixes For 49 Vulnerabilities

Microsoft, the software giant based in Redmond

I wonder, is Microsoft getting a bit sloppy lately? Or did the company just patch a huge number of vulnerabilities because it’s increasingly concerned in providing proper security for its customers? That should explain the largest ever batch of security patches issued recently by the Redmond-based giant, which included a total of 49 fixes for security holes. Microsoft was not the only one to be concerned about security. Oracle has also published its quarterly security update this week, rolling out fixes for 81 vulnerabilities in various Oracle and Sun Microsystems software.

Adobe followed the lead and released critical patches for 23 vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Acrobat. According to James Walter, manager of the McAfee Threat Intelligence service, the record patch Microsoft issued on Tuesday is an indicative of the latest trend we’ll continue to see among various software vendors. “The volume is indicative of a trend where we seeing among various software vendors. As the awareness of vulnerabilities increases, the number of patches get bigger as well” he said.

And this is definitely not the end of it. USA Today reports that Apple has also released a security patch for a file sharing issue in OS X recently. The vulnerability would allow a hacker to take control of a Mac computer remotely. Most of the patches Microsoft included are for older versions of Office as well as the Internet Explorer web browser. Critical updates were for Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 and are said to be relatively easy to exploit. About 24 vulnerabilities were patched in Office alone. Users are advised to apply both updates as fast as possible. According to Wolfgan Kandek, CTO of patch management firm Qualys, even the new Word 2010 is affected by two of the vulnerabilities.

If you’re wondering how come Microsoft finally came up with solutions for those vulnerabilities right now, I guess it’s because Microsoft has only recently decided to close off every possible hole hackers could take advantage of. By closing these gaps, Microsoft can be sure that hackers won’t discover them first and take advantage of the systems of various users. As malware becomes more advanced and complex, software companies are naturally going to pay more attention to making the software as well as patching it as soon as a vulnerability is discovered. The only thing we’re left to see is if they actually manage to secure their products and keep hackers away. After all, whatever was though of by man, can be broken down and manipulated by man, theory that was proved true time and time again. I still remember how much trouble Microsoft went through to make its computer games un-pirateable. Every time they came up with something new, hackers just modified their technique of pirating the software and released it for all users to enjoy anyway.11