Eight Security Bulletins coming – get patched now

Microsoft advises that it will issue eight Security Bulletins next Tuesday: five for Windows, one for Internet Explorer, one for Excel (did they patch the 0day hole I talked about in late February?), and one for ISA, which you probably don’t need to worry about.

Get all outstanding patches applied now, except 951847 (.NET Framework) and 960715 (ActiveX killbit). I’m still ambivalent about Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Internet Explorer 8, if you have IE 7 installed and patched, and you use Firefox.

For the time being, we’re still at MS-DEFCON 4: There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented here. Check this site to see if you’re affected and if things look OK, go ahead and patch.

Once you’re patched up, make sure Automatic Update is set to Notify but don’t download or install.