Just because it's relatively quiet on Patch Tuesday doesn't mean the one bulletin that was released should be ignored.

Microsoft today issued MS09-001 to address a critical vulnerability in the SMB protocol that could allow an attacker free reign to cause havoc via the NetBIOS ports (139 and 445). According to Microsoft, "an attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights."

Though it would be difficult for an attacker to successfully exploit the weakness, Microsoft advises that users of all versions of Windows from 2000 up download the appropriate patch immediately. It's worth noting that Windows 7 does not appear in the affected software list - whether we should be concerned about that fact remains to be seen.

Just what Linux and Mac users needed: another reason to deride SMB.