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Microsoft patches for February – Advance notice – Summary and deployment recommendations

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Microsoft has announced patches for the month of February.  There are twelve bulletins that will be released on February 8 for all current Microsoft Operating Systems, Office applications and Web browsers.  Three of the bulletins are classified as critical and nine are classified as important.

The breakdown of vulnerability classification by operating system is as follows:

Workstation operating systems

Windows XPsp3 (32 bit) and Windows XPsp2 (64 bit) –

  • Bulletins #1 and #2 CRITICAL,
  • Bulletins #3, #8-12 IMPORTANT (bulletins 4-7 do not apply to Windows XP).

Windows Vista SP1 and SP2 (32 bit) and Windows Vista SP1 and SP2 (64 bit) –

  • Bulletins #1, #2 and #3 CRITICAL,
  • Bulletins #4, 9 and 10 IMPORTANT (bulletins 5-8 and 11, 12 do not apply to windows Vista)

Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit) –

  • Bulletin #1 and 3 CRITICAL,
  • Bulletins #4, 7, 9-11 IMPORTANT (bulletins 2, 5, 8 and 12 do not apply to Windows 7)

Windows Server operating systems

Windows server 2003 sp3 (32 bit) and Windows server 2003 sp2 (64 bit) –

  • Bulletin #2 CRITICAL
  • Bulletins #3, 5, 8-12 IMPORTANT
  • Bulletin #1 MODERATE (bulletins 4 and 7 do not apply to Windows server 2003.)

Windows Server 2008 base and SP2 (32 bit), Windows Server 2008 base and SP2 (64 bit), Windows Server 2008  base and SP2 for Itanium 64 bit CPUs – Bulletin #2 and 3 CRITICAL, Bulletin #4, 9 and 10 IMPORTANT, Bulletin #1 MODERATE. (Bulletins 5-8 and 11,12 do not apply to Windows Server 2008)

NOTE- For bulletins #3, 4, 9 and 10, the server core operating system is affected for Server 2008 32 and 64 bit (non Itanium CPUs) systems.

NOTE – Bulletin #4 does not apply to Itanium CPUs for Server 2008

Windows Server 2008R2 (64 bit and Itanium systems) –

  • Bulletin #3 CRITICAL
  • Bulletins #4, 7, 9-11 IMPORTANT
  • Bulletin #1 MODERATE. (Bulletins #2, 5, 8 and 12 do not apply to Windows Server 2008R2.

NOTE-For bulletins #3, 4, 9-11, the server core operating system is affected for Server 2008 R2 64 bit (non Itanium CPUs)

Windows Office – Visio component versions 2002sp2, 2003sp3 and 2007sp2 –

  • Bulletin #6 IMPORTANT

Deployment priority recommendations

As, the vulnerability addressed in bulletin #1 has been released publicly, it is recommended that the patch be applied to all Windows Workstation operating systems as soon as possible.

As the vulnerability addressed in bulletin #2 has been released publicly, it is recommended that the patch be applied to all Windows workstation and Server operating systems as soon as possible. The patch does not apply to Windows 7 and Server 2008R2 for 64 bit systems.

Update February 8

As of this time, nothing has changed with the recommendations on applying the February Microsoft patches. Patches MS11-03, and MS11-06 are recommended for installation as soon as possible on both workstations and servers. Additional details have been provided by Microsoft at the following link – https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms11-feb.mspx -exploitability index

Additional details are also available at – http://blogs.technet.com/b/msrc/archive/2011/02/08/february-2011-security-bulletin-release.aspx

Update February 9

Some reports have been received that some XP workstations are experiencing an error when the installation of  the Internet Explorer patch – MS11-003 – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS11-003.mspx

As of yet no conformation has been provided by Microsoft.