Nine patches for Microsoft's next Patch Tuesday

Microsoft will issue nine security patches next Tuesday, as part of its monthly patching cycle.

The majority affect various versions of Windows. Five are seen as critical by Microsoft, with the other three rated important. One critical patch also affects Client for Mac, while one of the important patches is for the .NET Framework.

The last bulletin is for a flaw in Microsoft Office's Web Components, which was reported last month. The critical patch affects Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, ISA Server and BizTalk.

Paul Henry, security and forensic analyst at Lumension, said: "After a summer of heavier-than-normal Patch Tuesdays, the last thing IT workers need next Tuesday is yet another large batch of patches from Microsoft."

He warned that anyone using Microsoft's ISA server should pay attention to this patch. "One of Microsoft's security products, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) server, appears to have a hole that's critical on all versions," he said.

"Therefore, companies that are actively using this product as part of their security infrastructure will need to patch this vulnerability immediately."

The patch will be delivered by autoupdate or be available to download on 11 August.

Microsoft issued a pair of out-of-band patches last week, to fix flaws in Internet Explorer and Visual Studio.