<p>Microsoft released seven bulletins on its final Patch Tuesday of 2012 this week.</p><p>Patching five critical flaws and two rated as important, patches were issued for Windows, Internet Explorer, Word and Windows Server. It recommended patching MS12-077 first, which covers three critical-class issues in Explorer. Microsoft said that there are no known attack vectors for these versions as yet.</p><p>Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, said: "Bulletin MS12-077 addresses vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 9 and 10, the newest versions of IE that run under Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Here, an attacker would have to lure the attack target to browse to a malicious webpage. This is a tad harder than sending the target a simple e-mail, another common attack method."</p><p>Marc Maiffret, CTO of BeyondTrust, said: "There is a good combination of vulnerabilities that can be mixed together to provide a good arsenal for client-side attacks. Internet Explorer 9 and 10 are both susceptible to three different vulnerabilities (MS12-077) that attackers can use to execute malicious code on a user's computer. If the browser attacks don't appeal to an attacker's fancy, they still have the option of exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Word (MS12-079) that affects versions 2003, 2007 and 2010."</p><p><a href="http://www.scmagazineuk.com/final-patch-tuesday-of-2012-sees-microsoft-issue-five-critical-bulletins/article/272581/">Keep reading...</a></p>