As many of you know we talked about the Non-critical patches that Microsoft will release today.  IF you want to read those please go and check it out.   I’ll be talking about the REALLY important ones that Microsoft has kept tight until now.    These are the more important ones but I will list the ones that I previous talked about to better help people recognize the non-important ones:

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KB955839

KB957388

KB890830

KB905866

These are just the tip of the iceberg. although this list are not A lot.  I’d wanted to let people know about what people coin “Exploit Wednesday“.  I really don’t know if this is a Myth or actually does exist but I’d figure we discuss the problems associated with installing the critical updates and try to tell you which ones should be installed As soon as possible.  Though people have in the past used a Virtual Machine to see if there is any problem, that should be your first step if you don’t want to have any problems with these updates.  I don’t suggest testing it more than a couple days.  Here are some good Virtual Machine software to try out yourself:

• Hyper-V (Microsoft Product)
• VMware Virtual Machine
• Virtual PC 2007 (Microsoft product)
• Virtual Box – Sun Microsystems (FREE)
• Kaffe Virtual Machine (Haven’t Tried this one)

Here is the list of updates that are critical that Microsoft released today.   Each one of these are quite important and should be considered installed when you get a chance.

[ad#ad2-left]Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-073 – Critical
Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (KB958215)

This security update resolves four privately reported vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-071 – Critical
Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (KB956802)

This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in GDI. Exploitation of either of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted WMF image file. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

[ad#ad2-right]Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-075 – Critical
Vulnerabilities in Windows Search Could Allow Remote Code Execution (KB959349)

This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Windows Search. These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens and saves a specially crafted saved-search file within Windows Explorer or if a user clicks a specially crafted search URL. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

KB952069
(not quite sure what this one is, when I go do a Google search this is what pops up. It was in German but Google translated it for me)

In the Windows Media Runtime to the default in Windows XP SP3 contains Windows Media Player (WMP) 9 were discovered vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it. See Security Bulletin MS08-076 ( englisch bzw. deutsch ) See Security Bulletin MS08-076 (English or German)

These are just ones that I found and wanted to let you know, the others have been explained on the other article.  So check them all out and I suggest installing them quickly as possible.