Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday patched 20 vulnerabilities, more than half of them rated critical, in 11 separate security updates for Windows, Office, Internet Explorer (IE), Active Directory, and the Host Integration Server.
Also for the first time, the company predicted the likelihood that hackers would come up with exploits for each bug.
"The count's big," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. Eleven of the 20 flaws were rated "critical," the top ranking in Microsoft's four-level threat scoring system, while eight were pegged as "important," the next step down, and one was listed as only "moderate." Today's update was the largest since August, when Microsoft issued 26 patches in 12 bulletins.
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