Yesterday, Microsoft released their advanced notification, warning that they plan to release four security bulletins next Tuesday. The bulletins will include patches for Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer, and two have received Microsoft’s Critical severity rating. I suspect the Office updates will include a fix for the recent zero day Word flaw I mentioned in an earlier post.
Also note, April’s Patch Day marks the last time Microsoft will release Windows XP updates. They’ve been warning about XP’s End-of-Life for awhile now, and it’s finally upon us. Though some people think Microsoft’s using the opportunity to force people to upgrade, I believe XP has hung around longer than any operating system before it (13 years), and frankly it’s about time you update. I suspect hackers are holding onto an XP zero day or two, so it may be dangerous to keep it around much longer. That said, WatchGuard will continue to release IPS signatures for any future XP network flaws and AV signatures for XP malware.
In any case, I’ll post details about Microsoft bulletins next week, and if Adobe releases any updates you’ll hear about them here too. — Corey Nachreiner, CISSP (@SecAdept)