Microsoft slates single Windows patch for Tuesday

Microsoft Thursday said it will issue just one security update next week, down dramatically from last month's record-setting eight updates that patched 28 vulnerabilities.

The single security update slated for Tuesday, Jan. 13, has been tagged "critical" by Microsoft, which posted its usual advance notice Thursday of what to expect for its monthly patch cycle.

All currently-supported versions of Windows are affected, said Microsoft. As is often the case, older editions -- Windows 2000 , Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 -- are at more risk than the newer Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft rated the threat to the older versions as critical, but pegged the threat to newer editions as "moderate," the second-from-the-bottom rating in the company's four-step scoring system.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc., again put his money on a long-standing Windows bug as the problem Microsoft will patch.

"My guess is that it's the token kidnapping bug," said Storms, who had named the same unpatched vulnerability as a likely suspect before Microsoft's December patching. "There are three outstanding vulnerabilities. That one, WordPad and SQL Server. WordPad isn't in Windows Server 2008," said Storms, who noted that the server software is set for a patch next week. "And if they were going to patch SQL Server, I think they would list it as 'SQL Server,' not 'Windows,'" he added.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft confirmed that it has been working on a fix for a critical vulnerability in SQL Server for almost nine eight months, but denied that it has had a patch ready since September, as an Austrian security researcher has alleged.

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