Microsoft has released an out-of-schedule fix for problems introduced by its last patch for Internet Explorer.
The fix, described in Microsoft support article ID 976749, was initially made available on 28 October and revised on Wednesday. It aims to rectify issues in the MS09-054 cumulative security update for Internet Explorer, which was included in the Patch Tuesday batch of security updates sent out on 13 October.
People will encounter problems with the original MS09-054 patch depending on various criteria, Microsoft said. If Internet Explorer 8 is running in standards mode, it will miscalculate the top position of an object in the browser window. In addition, Internet Explorer will encounter scripting errors when visiting web pages that use VBScript or a combination of VBScript and Javascript.
Users who have not already applied the original Patch Tuesday update should not install the new fix, Microsoft warned, as this too could cause browser problems. Customers who have not installed either patch should install both: first the scheduled, then the out-of-band fix, Microsoft advised.
Microsoft typically schedules its security patches for release in a bulletin on the second Tuesday of every month, known as Patch Tuesday. The October Patch Tuesday bundle included a record number of bulletins to fix 34 vulnerabilities, including the first update for a critical flaw in Windows 7.
