Security Patches Race Out
Monday, June 21st, 2010Microsoft has been busy issuing security patches (also known as security bulletins) in a fast and furious way over the last few days, with security patches also coming from Adobe and Apple.
Microsoft sent out ten alerts which covered 34 separate vulnerabilities and these came together with a number of other updates and additional fixes. Only three of these security patches were ‘critical’ and they affected media decompression, ActiveX and their web browser, Internet Explorer.
Adobe has recently had to fix a long line of weaknesses with security patches in their product line-up and the latest was uncovered in the Flash Player. This effects multiple platforms and will also create impacts on the Adobe Reader and version Nine of the Acrobat. Although a fix has been issued, not all elements are covered and some platforms will have to wait for help.
Security patch experts say that the older versions of the PDF handling software are safe from the problems. Those users of Reader and Acrobat are being told they can work around the problem, but they have to make inoperative, delete, or rename the component called ‘authplay.dll.’ This provides the Flash function within the PDF documents.
As well as Microsoft and Adobe, Apple has also had its fair share of security patch problem fixing. They have had some problems with their latest version of the Safari browser which is said to have numerous issues inherited from older versions. Not least is a long-discovered weakness which enables malicious sites to harvest history data from the Safari browser.
Computer security officials are again warning computer users to accept security patches sent by the creator of the software in order to protect themselves against all manner of malware programmes.
And they stress that only those security patches from reputable, known companies should be downloaded. A common tactic is to trick computer users into thinking that they need a patch, only to find that it is in effect a malicious programme.
Guest Article by Neil Camp


My name is Alan Potts and I'm the Editor of the Antivirus-BUYability web site and Managing Director of BUYability Limited. You can connect with me or keep up to date with new posts on this blog via the following social media sites: 








