Windows 10

After last month’s rather brief Patch Tuesday from Microsoft, we see the largest ever release of updates for Windows and Microsoft Office — and of course another critical update for Adobe Flash Player.

For this March update, we see an unusually large number of critical updates — nine patches rated as critical and the remaining nine rated by Microsoft as important. In addition to this large cohort of patches, we also get a security advisory with KB3123479.

We have added both browser patches (MS17-006 and MS17-007) and the Adobe Flash Player update (MS17-023) to our “Patch Now” list. In addition, the core XML Services patch (MS17-022), though only rated as important by Microsoft, attempts to resolve a publicly disclosed zero-day flaw. MS17-022 was therefore also added to our “Patch Now” list.

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Microsoft today postponed the retirement of the security bulletins that for nearly two decades have described in detail the month’s slate of vulnerabilities and accompanying patches.

The bulletins’ last stand was originally scheduled for January, with a replacement process ready to step in Feb. 14. Rather than a set of bulletins, Microsoft was to provide a searchable database of support documents dubbed the “Security Updates Guide” or SUG.

But just hours before February’s security updates were to be released, Microsoft announced that it was postponing the entire collection to March 14, citing “a last-minute issue” that might impact some customers. The Redmond, Wash. company never spelled out exactly what led it to decide on the unprecedented delay.

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