Today, in keeping with its usual schedule, Microsoft released the Security Bulletin Advanced Notification for September 2013, previewing the security bulletins and associated patches it intends to release on Tuesday, September 10, 2013. This month there are fourteen bulletins in all; four of these have a maximum security rating of Critical; the other ten are rated Important. Seven of the bulletins affect Windows and its components. Seven bulletins affect Microsoft Office (including Office for Mac); one of these also affects Microsoft’s SharePoint server. More details on specific versions are given in the Advanced Notification.
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 | 3 | — |
| Windows Vista | 1 | 3 | — |
| Windows Server 2003 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Windows Server 2008 | — | 3 | 1 |
| Windows 7 | 1 | 4 | — |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | — | 4 | 1 |
| Windows 8 | 1 | 3 | — |
| Windows RT | 1 | 2 | — |
| Windows Server 2012 | — | 3 | 1 |
| Windows Server Core | — | 4 | — |
Two of the bulletins for Office are rated Critical; the other five are rated Important.
Microsoft says that three of the 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.
Random Walks 