Microsoft have published a Security Bulletin Summary for August 2012. A number of updates have been released including five "critical" and four "important" severity updates affecting Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Developer Tools,  Microsoft Server Software, SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange.

The patches address remote code execution and elevation of privilege. Importantly, an update has been released to patch four vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 and 9 (MS12-052).

Microsoft report that "the most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights."

Users are strongly advised to treat this as high priority.

Full details here.

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