Microsoft postpones ‘Tuesday patch’

Microsoft has said it has postponed its monthly round of security updates, which fall on the second Tuesday of the month, due to a last-minute issue. The Redmond company does not provide further details yet.

In a statement on Tuesday, Microsoft said it “has identified a last-minute issue that may cause problems for some users.” The company said it was unable to resolve the issue in time without disclosing further details about the nature of the complication. “After weighing all options, the decision has been made to postpone this month’s updates,” Microsoft said.

Earlier this month, researchers presented a bug in Windows that could cause the system to crash when connecting to a malicious smb server. Microsoft has not released a patch for this vulnerability so far. It is unclear whether this leak is responsible for the delay. Another possible explanation comes from Johannes Ulrich of the Internet Storm Center. He considers it possible that the delay has occurred because Microsoft no longer uses security bulletins, but is switching to a security updates guide this month. Patches are also no longer released individually, but bundled.