Microsoft to issue critical patch for Office on May 12

Microsoft has issues a statement saying they will issue a "critical" patch this coming Tuesday to fix a flaw in Microsoft Office PowerPoint. The single update is oddly timed, after Microsoft released eight patches to fix 23 vulnerabilities only days ago. Critical patches are the highest rating Microsoft gives to updates, issuing an urgent warning to install the needed fix.

The outstanding patch has been sitting idly by for almost a month until questions were raised on why it was missed during the latest patches. The vulnerability was reported almost a month ago, back on April 2, in Microsoft's Office PowerPoint can be triggered using rigged presentation files.

The following versions of Microsoft Office PowerPoint versions will require patching:

PowerPoint 2000
PowerPoint 2002
PowerPoint 2003
PowerPoint 2007

However, the 2007 version of PowerPoint does not contain the vulnerability, but will merely be a bug fix. The issue date for the single update will be on May 12, 2009, available to all users with Microsoft Office installed.