This month’s Patch Tuesday is on February 12. Patches should become available starting about 10am PST.
Updates this month comprise twelve bulletins, five of them critical, that address 57 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer and other Microsoft software.
The associated security bulletin has all the technical details.
Yesterday, Adobe announced an update for Flash that fixes specific security issues that are currently being exploited on the web.
Anyone who uses Flash should install the update as soon as possible.
The new version for Windows XP, Vista and 7 is 11.5.502.149. The new version for Windows 8 (available as an update from Microsoft) is 11.3.379.14.
The latest version of Firefox apparently fixes some Javascript stability issues.
On a related note: is it just me, or are the release notes for Firefox kind of messed up? Looking at the page for the latest release, I notice the following:
Confusing. To make matters worse, among all the Mozilla blogs, press releases and other related Firefox information on the Mozilla site, I’ve so far been unable to find a mailing list, feed or any other resource that simply announces new Firefox versions. I have to find out about new versions from SANS.
This month’s Ouch! newsletter (PDF) from SANS is about email ‘phishing’ attacks. According to Wikipedia,
Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
It’s a worthwhile read, and describes different types of phishing attacks and what you can do to protect yourself from them.
A new version of Opera was released on Monday. The only change is a fix for a crashing problem introduced in version 12.13.
Oracle/Sun has released update 13 for Java 7 (Java 7u13).
The update was originally scheduled for release on February 19, but given all the recent security issues, Oracle decided to get the latest patch out there as soon as possible.
The update includes fifty bug and security fixes. The issues addressed are listed on the associated Critical Patch Update Advisory. Oddly, the update version (7u13) is never mentioned once on that lengthy page.
Ars Technica just posted an excellent introduction to malware. The post talks about all the major categories of malware currently in the wild, and lists key indicators that your computer may be infected. Recommended reading for anyone not already well versed in current malware trends.
Version 12.13 of the Opera web browser includes several bug and security fixes. The official release notes have all the details.
Today is the last day you can buy Windows 8 for a reasonable price: $40. After today, you’ll have to fork out $200 for the new O/S.
The latest version of Google’s web browser includes a few minor bug fixes.
boot13