A Trio of Critical Updates for Bluetooth, IE, and DirectX Users

Critical updates typically refer to the potential for remote code execution exploits (aka "bad guys take over your PC"), and June's trio of critical updates are no exception.

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  • If you use Bluetooth devices on Windows XP SP2 or SP3, Vista and Vista SP1, or 64-bit versions of Windows XP or Vista, you're number one on the critical update list.
  • What's at Number Two2? Anyone running Internet Explorer 5.01 SP4, IE6, or IE7 on Windows 2000 SP4 up through Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 and 2008.
  • Number Three affects DirectX 7.0, 8.1, 9.0 and above, so Windows 2000 SP4, XP, and Vista are affected, as well as Windows Server 2003 and some Windows Server 2008 installations.

Important Updates

Of the three updates listed as "Important" for June, the first one affects servers running the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS), not desktops. However, the other updates (for Active Directory services and for the Pragmatic General Multicast [PGM] protocol for network multicasting), do affect Windows XP SP2/SP3 and Vista/SP1 systems as well as Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003 and 2008-based systems. All three target elevation of privilege vulnerabilities.

Kill Bit (not Bill)

The final security update for June fixes a remote code execution vulnerability in Kill Bit for all desktop versions of Windows from 2000 SP4 through Vista SP1 as well as for Windows Server 2003 and 2008.

These updates will be available starting June 10th via Windows Update or manually: the June 2008 Security Bulletin page will have the links you need.

...And the Rest

June 2008's Patch Tuesday will also include the following updates, including:

• • The monthly update for the Malicious Software Removal Tool (KB890830)
  • An update for Vista that updates the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program (KB939165 and KB931174)
  • The monthly update for the Windows Mail Junk email filter for Vista (KB905866)
  • Cumulative update for Windows Vista Media Center (KB950126)
  • Update to fix restart loop on Windows XP SP3 systems running AMD or other non-Intel processors (KB953356)*

*AMD laptop users with Windows XP, this is the fix you've been waiting for. 

Note that the KB articles referenced above will not be available until the updates are available via Windows Update or manually at the Microsoft Download Center. To search for these or other KB articles, visit the Microsoft Help and Support Center.