Wow – a serious bumper crop of updates out there today for Microsoft’s operating system and other software programs of their making. 

11 total updates of which 6 are critical and 5 are important.

Critical Updates

MS08-041 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Access (KB 955617)

MS08-043 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Excel (KB 954066)

MS08-044 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Office (KB 924090)

MS08-045 – addresses a vulnerability in Internet Explorer (KB 953838)

MS08-046 – addresses a vulnerability in Windows (KB 952954)

MS09-051 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft PowerPoint (KB 949785)

Important Updates

MS08-042 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Word (KB 955048)

MS08-047 – addresses a vulnerability in Windows (KB 953733)

MS08-048 – addresses a vulnerability in Outlook Express (KB 951066)

MS08-049 – addresses a vulnerability in Windows (KB 950974)

MS08-050 – addresses a vulnerability in Windows Messenger (KB 955702)

You can read the entire August 2008 Security Bulletin for yourself to get all the specific details on the above vulnerabilities.  And when you have a moment check out all of the thank you’s that Microsoft included for this months fixes:

ISC/SANS for reporting an issue described in MS08-042

VeriSign iDefense VCP for reporting an issue described in MS08-043

TippingPoint and the Zero Day Initiative for reporting an issue described in MS08-043

• Jeremy Funk for reporting an issue described in MS08-043

• Shaun Colley of NGS Software for reporting an issue described in MS08-044

• Damian Put, working with the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), for reporting an issue described in MS08-044

• An anonymous researcher working with the iDefense VCP for reporting an issue described in MS08-044

• Damian Put, working with the iDefense VCP, for reporting an issue described in MS08-044

• Yamata Li of Palo Alto Networks for reporting an issue described in MS08-045

• Tavis Ormandy of the Google Security Team for reporting an issue described in MS08-045

• Sam Thomas, working with TippingPoint and the Zero Day Initiative, for reporting an issue described in MS08-045

TippingPoint and the Zero Day Initiative for reporting an issue described in MS08-045

• Jun Mao of VeriSign iDefense Labs for reporting an issue described in MS08-046

• Jorge Luis Alvarez Medina of Core Security Technologies for reporting an issue described in MS08-048

• Yamata Li of Palo Alto Networks for reporting an issue described in MS08-049

• Haifei Li of Fortinet’s FortiGuard Global Security Research Team for reporting an issue described in MS08-050

• Ruben Santamarta of Reversemode.com, working with iDefense Labs, for reporting an issue described in MS08-051

• ADLab of Venustech for reporting an issue described in MS08-051

18 total – certainly clears up why there were so many fixes this month.