Will there be an out-of-band update for latest IE flaw?

Flaw fix

Microsoft has confirmed it is working on a fix for the latest critical Internet Explorer (IE) flaw, but would not confirm an emergency repair before April's Patch Tuesday.

Jerry Bryant, senior security communications manager at Microsoft, said in a blog post his team was testing an update but would not verify when users could get their hands on it, as thorough testing on all affected versions needed to take place first.

"We have seen speculation that Microsoft might release an update for this issue out-of-band," he wrote. "I can tell you that we are working hard to produce an update which is now in testing."

"We never rule out the possibility of an out-of-band update. When the update is ready for broad distribution, we will make that decision based on customer needs."

The latest flaw in the troubled browser linked to an invalid pointer reference came to light last Wednesday when Microsoft admitted the vulnerability was already being taken advantage of by hackers.

As with many recent flaws, this one only affects IE6 and IE7, so as ever Microsoft is advising users to upgrade to the latest version of the browser, IE8.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.