Wednesday, 9 April 2014

Microsoft issues final Windows XP fixes in Patch Tuesday release

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Microsoft has released its final security fixes for Windows XP as part of its latest Patch Tuesday update.
The latest set of releases is quite light, with just four patches issued, two labelled as ‘critical’ and two as ‘important’. These cover key Microsoft products Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.
The six fixes within the patch for Internet Explorer cover several versions of Windows, including Windows XP, and is one of the critical releases. The issues were spotted by researchers at firms including Trend Micro, HP and Palo Alto Networks.
“These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using Internet Explorer,” Microsoft said. “An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current user.”
The other critical fix covers Microsoft Office and Word, and also relates to a remote code execution vulnerability. “An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current user,” the firm added.
The two important fixes cover Windows and Office and also relate to remote code execution issues found by researchers.
The Patch Tuesday release comes at the same time that Microsoft ends support for Windows XP despite millions of machines still running the ageing operating system around the world.
From now on, no more fixes for the platform will be issued unless firms have paid for custom support, and security vendors have warned that hackers will be looking to exploit this situation as soon as possible.

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