Microsoft prepares for 'calm' Patch Tuesday

After recently giving IT administrators a headache with a serious out-of-cycle security patch, Microsoft has announced a rather quieter Patch Tuesday.'

The software giant has issued just two bulletins for the upcoming patch release next week. One is considered critical' and patches a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office related to a remote code execution. The other flaw is rated as important.'

It is a marked contrast to last month's security advisories when Microsoft had to fix 11 vulnerabilities, with four being rated as critical.

More serious was a rushed out emergency patch which was released at the end of last month, and was the first time one had been issued since April of last year. It also resulted in reports of attack code being developed to take advantage of the vulnerability.