Microsoft Patch to Address 57 Security Bugs

Microsoft's next Patch Tuesday will deliver an update to fix a larger number of bugs than usual.

Through 12 separate updates, Patch Tuesday on February 12 will address 57 individual security vulnerabilities. The bugs are currently affecting several Microsoft services and products including Windows, Internet Explorer, Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange and .Net Framework.

Five patches out of the 12 are rated as critical, which means that they'll protect users from hackers executing malicious code on an unprotected PC. Two such critical patches will be applied to Internet Explorer versions 6 through 10.

The third critical patch, meanwhile, will apply a fix to Windows XP and Vista, in addition to Server 2003. The fourth relates to Microsoft Exchange, while the fifth solely affects Windows XP. The remaining seven patches are rated as important; users will have to install them manually.

The critical patches will, however, be automatically installed for any Windows user who has automatic updates enabled.

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