The latest security patch released by Microsoft yesterday patches eight vulnerabilities, for Internet Explorer (IE) including a hole targeted in the China based attacks on Google and other US companies

According to the Security bulletin MS10-002 the security update is rated critical for all supported versions of IE 5, 6, 7 and 8. The more severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a malicious web page using IE, it said

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The European antitrust regulators are to be asked to modify the proposed Microsoft ballot screen designed to give Windows users the chance to choose an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer (IE)

Microsoft/s main browser rivals, Opera, Mozilla and Google will each send separate letters to the European Commission suggesting changes to the browser proposal put forward by Microsoft and provisionally approved by the commission back in October

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Microsoft is rushing out two emergency “out-of-band” security patches, these include a fix for Internet Explorer rated “critical” as well as a related Visual Studio patch rated “moderate” urgency by Microsoft.

Microsoft said in a recent blog posting: “The Internet Explorer bulletin will provide defence and in depth changes to Internet Explorer to help provide additional protection for the issues addressed by the Visual Studio bulletin”.

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Microsoft on Monday warned of vulnerability in its Video ActiveX Control that could allow an attacker to take control of a PC if the user visits a malicious website

There have been limited attacks exploiting the hole, which affects Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, However, Microsoft is recommending that users implement a workaround outlined in the security advisory 972890. Customers can automatically implement the workaround by following the instructions under ‘Fix It For Me’ in the Knowledge Base article for this advisory on the Microsoft support site.

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A German computer science student has hacked the final version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)

Questions had arisen about the exploitability of IE8 almost immediately after the Pwn2Own hack because Nils, the German student who gave only his first name, hacked IE8 Release Candidate 1 (RC1), while Microsoft released the final code less than 24 hours later.

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Dean Hachamovitch Internet Explorer General Manager announced during a keynote speech at MIX09 in Las Vegas late last week that the final release of Internet Explorer (IE) 8 for Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista (RTM), SP1 and SP2 is now available for download.

Currently, IE8 is only available as a manual download from Microsoft’s main download center and the IE8 page. The company will begin automatically installing the new browser on machines now running IE6 or IE7 at an unspecified later date

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The European Union’s antitrust agency may force Microsoft to include rival Internet browsers in Windows as soon as they install the operating system, according to a regulatory filing submitted last week by the U.S. software developer, which ruled that in principle at least, the firm gives an unfair advantage to its own Internet Explorer, the default browser in Windows. Microsoft has until late March to contest the ruling and ask for a formal hearing.

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Microsoft has launched the release candidate of Internet Explorer 8, the first update to the browser since August 2008. The build, dubbed IE8 Release Candidate 1 (IE8 RC1), runs on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008, but not on Windows 7 Beta.

Jane Maliouta, Microsoft IE program manager, said on the IE Blog: “If you are running Windows 7 Beta, you will not be able to install IE8 RC1. You will get an error message saying that your operating system is not supported since IE8 already ships in Windows 7. The IE8 RC1 available from the Microsoft Download Center is a standalone upgrade for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 and Window Server 2003 only.”.

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