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Patchless Christmas from Microsoft
A month off despite several new flaws...

By Robert Lemos

Published: Wednesday 10 December 2003

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that no security patches would be forthcoming this month.

While several new flaws have been announced by researchers, Microsoft said that it is still investigating the issues and doesn't have a patch prepared for December.

"It is not that we are not doing anything, it's just that we don't have a patch ready in the pipeline," said Iain Mulholland, security program manager for Microsoft. He said that the company is putting heavy emphasis on increasing the quality of its patches, and that has had an effect on the release timing.

In October, Microsoft committed to making its patch-release schedule more regular, by only publishing patches on the second Tuesday in each month. The software giant said it will be skipping that release this month.

However, several vulnerabilities have been reported to Microsoft, including seven internet Explorer flaws found in late November that Mulholland said are still being investigated.

Robert Lemos writes for CNET News.com