In keeping with its usual schedule, despite the Independence Day holiday here, Microsoft today released the Security Bulletin Advanced Notification for July 2013, previewing the security bulletins and associated patches it intends to release next Tuesday, July 9, 2013. This month there are seven bulletins in all; six of these have a maximum security rating of Critical; the other is rated Important. Five of the bulletins affect Windows and its components; a sixth affects Windows as well as some other software (Office, Lync, Silverlight).
All supported versions of Windows have several Critical bulletins. The table below shows a breakdown of the Windows bulletins by severity and Windows version.
| Windows Version | Critical | Important | Moderate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP+SP3 | 6 | — | — |
| Windows Vista | 6 | — | — |
| Windows Server 2003 | 5 | — | 1 |
| Windows Server 2008 | 5 | — | 1 |
| Windows 7 | 6 | — | — |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | 5 | — | 1 |
| Windows 8 | 6 | — | — |
| Windows RT | 5 | — | — |
| Windows Server 2012 | 5 | — | 1 |
| Windows Server Core | 3 | — | — |
In addition, one of the bulletins affects Microsoft’s Silverlight, and is rated Critical. Another affects Lync, for which it is rated Critical, as well as Office and Visual Studio, for which it is rated Important.
The remaining bulletin, which is rated Important, applies to Windows Defender.
Microsoft says that two of the Windows bulletins will definitely require a 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 on Tuesday. I will post a note here once the actual updates are available.
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