Microsoft Patches 7 Critical Vulnerabilities

As part of its Patch Tuesday updates this week, Microsoft corrected 10 vulnerabilities in Windows and Office, 7 of which were deemed "critical." Three critical flaws were fixed in Excel that could allow for remote code execution, while one was fixed in Windows 2000 and Server 2003.

The final critical patch was for the .NET Framework, correcting three vulnerabilities - two of which affect client systems and one affecting Web servers running ASP.NET. Lastly, one "important" vulnerability was patched in Office and another in Windows XP; and one moderate flaw was fixed in Vista. Vista's firewall could allow incoming unsolicited network traffic to access a network interface and gather information.