Thursday, in keeping with its usual schedule, Microsoft released its Security Bulletin Advanced Notification for February, previewing the security fixes it intends to release next Tuesday, February 14. Microsoft plans to release nine security bulletins this month; seven are for Windows and its components, and there are also patches for Microsoft’s Office, SharePoint, and Silverlight products. Four Windows patches have a maximum severity rating of Critical; the other three are rated Important. All supported versions of Windows are affected. The table below shows the breakdown of patches by Windows version and severity:
| Windows Version | Critical | Important | Moderate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP+SP3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| Windows Vista | 4 | 1 | — |
| Windows Server 2003 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Windows Server 2008 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Windows 7 | 4 | 1 | — |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
The patches for Office and SharePoint have an Important severity rating; the patch for Silverlight is rated Critical.
According to Microsoft, four of the Windows bulletins will require a system restart, and the other bulletins may require one, depending on your system’s configuration.
As always, this information is subject to change between now and the actual release of the bulletins next Tuesday. I will post a note here once the actual updates are available.
Random Walks 
[…] Today is the second Tuesday of February, so, in keeping with its usual schedule, Microsoft has released this month’s batch of security bulletins and patches for Windows and related software. This month, there are nine patches, for 20 identified vulnerabilities. Seven of the patches are for Windows itself; all supported versions of Windows are affected, and have at least two Critical bulletins. For a breakdown of patches by version and severity, check this month’s preview post. […]