Eight bulletins wrap up Microsoft's security year

The final Patch Tuesday of 2008 is set to contain eight security bulletins addressing flaws in Microsoft Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.

Of the eight bulletins, six have been rated as "critical," the highest of Microsoft's security alert levels. Critical bulletins often address flaws which can be remotely exploited by attackers to run code with minimal user interaction.

The critical fixes include a pair of flaws in Windows itself. The first patch is rated as a critical priority for all currently supported versions of the operating system, while the second patch only applies to Windows Vista and Server 2008 systems.

Internet Explorer will also be receiving a critical update. The patch will apply to both IE6 and IE7.

The other three critical fixes will be issued to various components of Office. Once of the patches applies to Office FrontPage and Project systems, while the other two will fix security flaws in Word and Excel.

The two important patches include fixes for issues in Windows Media Player and Office SharePoint Server.

Microsoft plans to issue the December security update on Tuesday. The releases are usually posted by mid-day US time and can be installed automatically through the Windows Update and Microsoft update services.

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