Microsoft has announced that it may release an early patch for the three bugs currently plaguing its Internet Explorer browser.

The company said that its team of security developers is working on a fix, and that it will release a patch before the next scheduled update on 11 April if the "limited" attacks became widespread.

"If warranted we will release that update as soon as it's ready to protect customers. Right now our testing plan has it ready in time for the April update release cycle," said a posting on the Microsoft Security blog.

One of the bugs simply causes the browser to crash, but the other two could allow remote code to be run on the user's PC.

Microsoft warned users not to visit unfamiliar or untrusted websites that could host the malicious code.

Users who are worried about the exploit can visit Microsoft's Windows Live Safety Center to scan their computers and remove any malware using this vulnerability. 

Customers using the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview are not affected by the browser bugs.