Thursday, in keeping with its usual schedule, Microsoft released the Security Bulletin Advanced Notification for August 2013, previewing the security bulletins and associated patches it intends to release on Tuesday, August 13, 2013. This month there are eight bulletins in all; three of these have a maximum security rating of Critical; the other five are rated Important. Seven of the bulletins affect Windows and its components; the eighth affects Exchange Server.
All supported desktop versions of Windows have at least one Critical bulletin. The table below shows a breakdown of the Windows bulletins by severity and Windows version.
| Windows Version | Critical | Important | Moderate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP+SP3 | 2 | 2 | — |
| Windows Vista | 1 | 3 | — |
| Windows Server 2003 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Windows Server 2008 | — | 4 | 1 |
| Windows 7 | 1 | 3 | — |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | — | 4 | 1 |
| Windows 8 | 1 | 3 | — |
| Windows RT | 1 | 2 | — |
| Windows Server 2012 | — | 4 | 1 |
| Windows Server Core | — | 3 | — |
The remaining bulletin, which affects Exchange Server, is rated Critical.
Microsoft says that five 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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