It was a mammoth patch Tuesday just gone. Microsoft, Adobe and Oracle all released updates for critical vulnerabilities.

Microsoft release 11 updates that patched 25 bugs. Three of these for flaws in media software that allowed hackers in when listening/viewing a malicious audio/video file. This affected Vista but not Windows 7. Another flaw does affect windows 7, and all Windows OSs it seems. The vulnerability potentially allows attackers to remotely execute malicious code by sending out manipulated server message block, which are queries used for network file shares. The fix for this has been worked on by MS since November last year.

Adobe?s updates fix 15 flaws in Reader and Acrobat that relate to PDFs. The patches are rated a critical, which means attackers can exploit the vulnerabilities to gain control of a users? machine. Adobe have also released an auto updater for it?s software, which can also be run manually. It may take up to 7 days for the updater to kick in buy it?s self, but after that it will run every three days.

Oracle released a whopping 47 updates for security flaws in a wide range of it?s software. Such as Database Server, Fusion Middleware, Collaboration Suite, E-Business Suite, and PeopleSoft Enterprise.

All these updates put the strain on admins as allot of them equired a reboot. But rather that than a compromised network.