Since this story was originally posted, it has been modified to correct the number of security updates Microsoft issued on Tuesday.Microsoft has issued 10 security updates, fixing critical vulnerabilities in its Windows and Office software.Six of the updates are for Windows, including a patch for a nasty bug in the operating system’s graphical user interface, which is being targeted by attackers. Four updates are for Office, and the final update is for the .Net framework, considered to be less severe than the worst of the Windows and Office bugs.The patches were released Tuesday as part of Microsoft’s regular monthly security update cycle. Microsoft’s security bulletins on these patches can be found here. Six of the 10 updates are rated critical, the most serious rating given by Microsoft.The most publicized of these flaws is a bug in an ActiveX control called WebViewFolderIcon, which is used by the Windows’ graphical user interface software. This vulnerability was first disclosed in July, but hackers began exploiting it late last month after exploit code taking advantage of it was added to the Metasploit hacking tool. Microsoft Office has also been the target of a number of extremely limited attacks over the past few months, and on Tuesday Microsoft issued four updates that addressed critical flaws in PowerPoint, Excel and Word, and the Office suite itself. All of these flaws could be exploited by an attacker to run unauthorized software on a victim’s computer, Microsoft said.The sixth critical update fixes two vulnerabilities in the XML parser used by Windows.Tuesday also marked the end of the line for Windows XP Service Pack 1, which will no longer be supported by Microsoft. Microsoft’s advisory on this issue can be found here.Hackers have been keeping Microsoft’s Security Response Center busy this past month. On Sept. 26, the company was forced to issue a rare, “out-of-cycle” security patch after criminals began exploiting a flaw in Internet Explorer’s vector markup language rendering engine.-Robert McMillan, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau) Related Links: Microsoft to Fix Windows, Office Security Flaws Gangs Exploit Another Unpatched Windows Bug Critical IE Bug Gets Early Fix from MicrosoftThis article is posted on our Microsoft Informer page. For more news on the Redmond, Wash.-based powerhouse, keep checking in.Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe