Microsoft Issues Three Security Updates

Microsoft today issued three software patches to fix a security flaw in Windows, another in iits Exchange Server e-mail product, and two "critical" vulnerabilities in older versions of Adobe's Macromedia Flash Player that comes bundled with Windows.

The Flash patch being distributed by Redmond fixes two serious vulnerabilities present in versions 6.0.79 or earlier installed on either Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows ME or Windows XP (Flash is installed by default on all of those). To see what version you have installed, check out this link.

This patch also includes the security fixes for Flash versions 7.x and 8.x that Adobe released in March. If you applied those patches, you shouldn't have to update, but just check your Flash version anyway to be sure. The most recent safe version of Flash is 8.0.24.0.

The second update fixes a couple of security flaws in Windows that Microsoft said could be used by attackers to cause systems to seize up. This flaw exists in XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003. If you are using one of these operating systems, visit Microsoft Update and install this patch.

The final patch fixes a critical problem in Exchange Server, which many businesses use to manage their incoming and outgoing e-mail.

For businesses using Exchange, this is a very important update to install. The problem is, even Microsoft admits it may cause problems for some third-party applications that work hand-in-hand with Exchange. For instance, Reseach in Motion, the company that makes the popular BlackBerry mobile phone/organizer, said applying this patch will break some functionality required by its software. Microsoft has published some workarounds for businesses that have trouble after installing this update.