Microsoft kicks off 2013 with 12 Patch Tuesday security fixes
Microsoft is set to roll out two critical and five important security updates next week to eliminate potential threats that exist in everything from Windows to Office.
A total of 12 security flaws will be fixed as part of its monthly security update cycle, the company said on Friday in a blog post on the Microsoft Security Response Centre page.
"With 2013 starting on a Tuesday, our monthly bulletin release is upon us a bit earlier than usual," said Dustin Childs, group manager of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, in the blog post.
"Next Tuesday we'll release seven bulletins; two critical and five important, which address 12 vulnerabilities. The critical-rated bulletins address issues in Microsoft Windows, Office, Developer Tools and Microsoft Server Software. The important-rated bulletins address issues in Microsoft Windows, .NET Framework and Microsoft Server Software."
However, there is no mention of a fix for the Internet Explorer exploit discovered by FireEye, for which Microsoft issued a security alert on 29 December.
The patches will be released on 8 January at 6pm GMT along with advisory notices for IT managers on the recommended deployment strategy.
Last month Microsoft introduced seven updates, which included critical fixes for Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8.