Patch Tuesday heads-up: 21 vulnerabilities, including 'critical' IE bulletin

Microsoft plans to ship nine security bulletins next Tuesday with fixes for at least 21 documented flaws in the Windows operating system.

This month's Patch Tuesday batch will cover dangerous security holes in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, the Internet Explorer browser and .NET/Silverlight.

[ SEE: Ten little things to secure your online presence ]

The Internet Explorer bulletin is rated "critical" and should be considered a high-priority update because of the risk of code execution attacks via drive-by downloads.

According to an advance notice from Microsoft, most of the updates will require a restart once the patches are applied.

The nine bulletins will be releaed on Tuesday, February 14 at approximately 10 a.m. PST.