May 11, Windows will be receiving some critical patches for both Windows and Microsoft Office. They will be plugging holes which can leave users vulnerable to remote attacks. The patch will be issued for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 users. Along with Microsoft Office, the patch will address Visual Basic problems as well.
Microsoft has stated this round of patches will require a system reboot, so prepare for that when downloading the patch.
While Microsoft is being active with their patching this month, one flaw which users have been clamoring for a fix over is being overlooked. There’s a major security vulnerability in both the Sharepoint Server, and Service which Microsoft has announced won’t be serviced with the upcoming patch.
Microsoft did address their knowledge of the problem, and released this statement:
“Concerning the recent Security Advisory for SharePoint, 983438, we will not be releasing an update for that with the May bulletins. Our teams are still working on an update for that issue. In the meantime, we recommend customers review the advisory and apply the workarounds.”
Jerry Bryant, Microsoft group manager also spoke of the absence of the SharePoint fixes, “Our teams are still working on an update for that issue.”
While there has been no official fix released as of yet, Microsoft has suggested ways to work around the issue.
May is looking like it will be a lot less of a hassle in terms of patches compared to April, when 20 patches were released.
For Windows 2000 and XP users, this latest announcement will be pretty sad. Jerry Bryant, Microsoft group manager informed users that Microsoft would stop supporting both Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 beginning July 13th. It is suggested users upgrade to a new operating system, or if a service pack is available to update that as well.
If you have further inquiries regarding the patches, Microsoft is hosting a webcast on May 12th to address users’ concerns.