July Patch Tuesday to cover critical flaw in Windows 7 and Vista

Microsoft has announced details of its Patch Tuesday update for July, which features just four bulletins including a patch for a critical flaw in Windows 7 and Vista systems.

The Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for July 2011 said that four patches will cover 22 vulnerabilities, the most serious allowing for remote code execution on Vista and Vista 64-bit SP1 and SP2, and Windows 7 and Windows 7 64-bit SP1 and SP2 systems.

The remaining three bulletins are rated 'important' and cover elevation of privilege flaws in XP, Server 2003 and 2008, Vista and Windows 7, as well as a remote code execution problem in Microsoft Visio 2003 SP3.

Marcus Carey, security researcher at vulnerability management firm Rapid7, said that July will be a pretty light month for admins, but that the updates still need to be taken seriously.

"The bulletin for Visio is rated 'important' and will not affect many people outside corporate circles," he added.

"Organisations that are using it will need to be patched, and in the meantime should be wary of Visio files sent from unknown sources."

The relatively light update comes after last month's Patch Tuesday in which Microsoft released 16 bulletins, including nine critical updates covering a whopping 34 flaws.