Ah, Patch Tuesday. Of all the tasks we have to perform, there’s nothing quite like it: it’s both tedious and critically important. I’m starting to consider enabling automatic updates, but given Murphy’s Law, no doubt the moment I do that, Microsoft will issue a catastrophic update.

This month we have fourteen updates from Microsoft, affecting the usual culprits (Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, Silverlight, .NET), plus a few new ones: Lync and Edge, the new web browser in Windows 10. Four of the updates are flagged as critical. The updates address a total of 58 vulnerabilities. The update for Silverlight brings its version to 5.1.40728.0. Several of the updates apply to Windows 10. One of the updates addresses a nasty bug that could allow an attacker to execute malicious code from a USB thumb drive.

Adobe is once again tagging along this month, releasing a new version of Flash (18.0.0.232) that addresses a whopping thirty-four vulnerabilities. Needless to say, you should install the new version as soon as possible if you still use Flash in any web browser. Internet Explorer 10 and 11 in Windows 8.x will receive the Flash update via Windows Update, as will the new Edge browser in Windows 10. Chrome will update itself to use the new version.