Microsoft is planning to ship 11 security patches by the next week on the so called Patch Tuesday. Among the announced patches, four are rated as critical.

The patches will include fixes for critical security bugs in Windows Active Directory, Internet Explorer, Excel and the Microsoft Host Integration Server, which integrates Windows computers with IBM mainframes.

The updates announced include fix for a security flaw in Active Directory that affects Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and fix for the Excel bug affecting both Windows and Mac OS X.

Also, the company has announced six less-critical updates, rated “important,” for Windows, and a “moderate” patch for Office.

With this October Patch Tuesday, the company will mark the debut of two Microsoft security initiatives: The Microsoft Active Protections Program, (MAPP) and the Exploitability Index.

The MAPP program offers enhanced security solutions to security vendors by providing them an early peek at the bugs that Microsoft will be patching each month.

The Exploitability Index allows users to compare and then decide which security bugs need immediate attention and hence which patches to install first. The index will separate the flaws that will simply cause a system crash from more serious bugs that could be used to give attackers control of a victim's machine.

The vulnerabilities listed in Microsoft’s bulletins will be rated as “Consistent Exploit Code Likely,” “Inconsistent Exploit Code Likely” or “Functioning Exploit Code Unlikely.”

Jaya Sinha/ITVoir Network