Ah, yesterday; another second Tuesday of the month, another batch of Microsoft security patches. But hey, this time around things were just a little bit different: one of those updates was deemed "critical." No, that's not the different part. The "critical" flaw "could allow a remote user to take control of a computer" if said computer isn't patched. No, that's not the different part, either. What's different is that this flaw is reportedly so buried in Windows's code and so vulnerable, it's on par with the hole that spawned the Blaster worm that wreaked billions of dollars' worth of havoc last summer. In fact, according to the Associated Press, this new flaw is so potentially heinous, the Department of Homeland Security is urging people to patch their systems before terrorists start to exploit it.

Just like they warned us about the hole that led to Blaster. So, uh, apparently that wasn't so different, either. Never mind.

But regardless, the new flaw is critical; Marc Maiffret of eEye Digital Security, the firm that first reported the flaw to Microsoft, says that "this is one of the most serious Microsoft vulnerabilities ever released" and that "some computer systems that control critically important power or water utilities were vulnerable." Furthermore, in a Reuters article, Maiffret notes that his firm "contacted Microsoft about these vulnerabilities 200 days ago, which is insane." Over six months to patch one of the biggest security holes ever? Well, that's a little different. Scary and not entirely unsurprising, but different nonetheless.

How about Microsoft spokespeople not making any sense? According to Stephen Toulouse of Microsoft's Security Response Center, the vulnerability "does affect all (current) versions of Windows. We're not aware of anyone affected by this at this time." Riiiight. Anybody want to complete the syllogism? Evidently Microsoft isn't aware of anyone using any current versions of Windows. You'd think the stock would plummet.

But when all's said and done, here's what was really different about yesterday's batch of Microsoftian security flaws: one of them was for Mac users. Granted, it was for Virtual PC, and anyone running Windows in emulation should be used to dealing with Microsoft security flaws anyway, but this time the problem is with the Mac Virtual PC software itself. Apparently someone with limited login access to a system running VPC can theoretically exploit the hole to give themselves full administrator access to the Mac; in other words, this is a bona fide, Mac-native security flaw.

Woo-hoo, three cheers for Microsoft! They may never give us Access or a reasonable version of Outlook, but at least they're sharing the security holes. That is different.