Patch Tuesday for November 2016

It’s Patch Tuesday, albeit a slightly more interesting one than usual. Patches we have, from both Microsoft and Adobe. More about that later.

Microsoft wants to simplify the way security update information is presented to the public. To that end, they’ve created a new ‘starting page’ of sorts, called the Security Updates Guide. The idea is that anyone should be able to find the information they need by starting here. Most of the links on the new page actually go to existing TechNet pages. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Among the updates from Microsoft this month is a fix for the Windows vulnerability recently reported by Google. You may recall that Microsoft was rather annoyed with Google for making the vulnerability public according to their own rules (sooner than Microsoft wanted). Microsoft did credit Neel Mehta and Billy Leonard of Google’s Threat Analysis Group for their assistance.

There are fourteen bulletins from Microsoft this month. The associated updates address seventy-five vulnerabilities in Windows, Edge, Office, and Internet Explorer.

Adobe’s monthly contribution to the festivities is a new version of Flash, 23.0.0.207. A release announcement provides an overview of the changes, while the associated security bulletin provides some background about the nine vulnerabilities addressed.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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