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Microsoft has a relatively quiet Patch Tuesday planned for next week.
The vendor is planning to release just one security bulletin Tuesday as part of its monthly round of patches. The bulletin is rated critical, and affects Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It also affects Windows Vista and Windows Sever 2008, but is rated moderate on those platforms.
According to Microsoft, the vulnerability can be exploited to remotely execute code. Unmentioned in this month’s advance notification is the SQL Server flaw it warned customers about a few weeks ago. Microsoft has however provided advice on workarounds to address the issue.
The SQL Server advisory was just one part of a busy December for Microsoft’s security team. Last month also saw the release of an out-of-band patch for an Internet Explorer flaw as well as eight security bulletins released as part of Patch Tuesday.
This month’s bulletin is scheduled to be released around 10 a.m. PST.