August 10, 2010: Microsoft has released their August 2010 Security Bulletins. A total of 14 bulletins addressing 34 vulnerabilities have been released. Affected components include Microsoft Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, the Microsoft .NET Framework, and Microsoft Silverlight. Eight of the bulletins are rated 'Critical' and five are rated as 'Important'. All eight of the critical vulnerabilities also carry a potential impact of remote code execution. In addition, unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows and Adobe Reader and Acrobat are being activly exploited.
Critical
Systems worldwide are being widely targeted, or may become widely targeted by an active and available exploit or threat. An extreme global security incident is taking or may imminently take place.
Severe
An unpatched or recently patched vulnerability can be exploited by a worm, and systems worldwide are at risk to be targeted by a particular worm. No worm activity has been identified.
A high incidence of new malware that potentially can cause damage has been reported.
Elevated
An unpatched or recently patched vulnerability is present on many systems worldwide but requires user interaction to be exploited.
An existing vulnerability becomes more serious because new exploit code has been published.
There is new malware activity, but it is not widespread.
Low
There is no direct threat to systems that have been patched.
No new significant malware activity has been reported.
