Microsoft released 7 patches to fix 23 vulnerabilities next Tuesday: Impact on Win7

Computer store news Microsoft will release seven patches next Tuesday to fix 23 security vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Silverlight and .Net development platforms. Three of the seven patches are “serious” levels, which is the highest threat level in Microsoft's four-tier threat system. The remaining 4 are “important” grade patches.

There are 4 patches to fix security vulnerabilities in Windows; 4 patches to fix security vulnerabilities in Office software; and 1 patch to fix security vulnerabilities in the Silverlight development framework. This number exceeds seven because one of the patches fixes a security hole in all three product lines. There are 3 patches specifically designed to fix Office security vulnerabilities, and 1 patch is a security vulnerability for Windows and Silverlight. Three patches that only fix Office security vulnerabilities will fix security vulnerabilities in Word, Excel, and Visio. Visio is a rarely used commercial charting program and is considered part of the Office family. Analysts say Microsoft's second security patch will fix security holes in the .Net development framework. Two important levels of security patches can lead Microsoft to say "remote code execution". That is to say, if the attacker successfully exploits this security vulnerability, the user's PC can be hijacked. These two patches are for Excel and Visio. Two of the four Office patches are available for the 2008 and 2011 versions of Office for Mac.