At a key supercomputing conference on Monday, Microsoft released a test version of its Excel spreadsheet redesigned to run on powerful clusters of servers.
By engineering Excel to run better on such clusters Microsoft said that customers are seeing spreadsheets that normally would take weeks to calculate now run in a few hours.
The software maker also released a beta version of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2--the latest version of Windows Server designed to run in high-performance compute clusters. The announcements were made at the SC09 conference in Portland, Ore.
Microsoft has taken the standard version of Excel 2010 and combined it with new Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 technology, allowing Excel to run on the cluster. The final version of Excel compute cluster and Win HPC Server 2008 R2 is expected to be ready in summer 2010. The capability has been in development for about 18 months.
The announcements are the latest in Microsoft's push over the last few years to better compete against Linux in the market for compute clusters--high-performance systems built by linking together large numbers of standard servers. Last year, for example, Microsoft managed to crack the upper echelons of the supercomputing ranks, landing in the top 25 rankings for the first time.
Microsoft also said the next version of its developer tools--Visual Studio 2010--will help ease the task of writing software that can run efficiently on such systems.
"Until now, the power of high-performance and parallel computing has largely been available to a limited subset of customers due to the complexity of environments and applications, as well as the challenges of parallel programming," Microsoft senior director Vince Mendillo said in a statement.
As for the new version of HPC Server, Microsoft said it offers the ability out-of-the-box to support clusters of up to 1,000 nodes as well as diskless boot and improved management and diagnostics abilities.
A correction was made to this story. See below for details.
Microsoft on Thursday said next week's Patch Tuesday would include eight patches, five of them critical, including one addressing a vulnerability in Excel.
A company representative declined to confirm whether the patch for its spreadsheet software addresses a vulnerability that has seen "zero-day attacks" which target unpatched security holes. But given the fact that both that Excel vulnerability and the Excel patch slated for Tuesday affect Microsoft Office 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007, as well as Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for the Mac, it could be the same weakness.
Security firm Symantec said in February that it had discovered malicious files in the wild in Japan that attempt to exploit the Excel Unspecified Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. The attack requires a computer user to open an attachment sent via e-mail that has a maliciously crafted Excel document.
Also on Tuesday, Microsoft will provide updates addressing critical remote code execution vulnerability in Internet Explorer, Windows, and Office, and less severe vulnerabilities in Windows and Microsoft's Forefront Edge Security.
Affected software includes IE 7, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Server 2003, and Server 2008, according to Microsoft's advance-notification bulletin, released on the Thursday before every Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of the month.
Correction: This story initially gave the wrong day of Microsoft's announcement. It was made Thursday, April 9.
Microsoft on Tuesday released its December 2008 security bulletin. The "critical" bulletins affect Windows GDI, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and Windows Search. The "important" updates affect SharePoint and Windows Media Components.
Microsoft is including within each bulletin an "exploitability index" to help system administrators prioritize the patches. All Microsoft security patches for both Windows and Office software are available via Microsoft Update or via the individual bulletins detailed below.
Exploitability index: 1-2. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately. Titled "Vulnerabilities in Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime Extended Files (ActiveX Controls) Could Allow Remote Code Execution (932349)", this bulletin affects the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime Extended Files; all supported editions of Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 2002, Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 2003, Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0, Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0, Microsoft Office Project 2003, and Microsoft Office Project 2007. This bulletin addresses the vulnerabilities detailed in CVE-2008-4252, CVE-2008-4253, CVE-2008-4254, CVE-2008-4255, CVE-2008-4256, and CVE-2008-3704, which could allow remote code execution "if a user browsed a Web site that contains specially crafted content," Microsoft says.
Exploitability index: 2-3. Microsoft recommends that customers apply this update immediately. Titled "Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (956802)", this bulletin is rated critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. This bulletin addresses the vulnerabilities detailed in CVE-2008-2249 and CVE-2008-3465. Microsoft says "exploitation of either of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted WMF image file. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.
Exploitability index: 1-3. Microsoft recommends that customers apply this update immediately. Titled "Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (957173)," this bulletin is rated critical for supported editions of Microsoft Office Word 2000 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. For supported editions of Microsoft Office Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Works 8, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, and Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, this security update is rated important. This bulletin addresses the issues detailed in CVE-2008-4024, CVE-2008-4025, CVE-2008-4026, CVE-2008-4027, CVE-2008-4030,CVE-2008-4028, CVE-2008-4031, and CVE-2008-4837 . Microsoft says this bulletin resolves "eight privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Outlook that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) file. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights."
Exploitability index: 1-2. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately. Titled "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (958215)", this bulletin is rated critical for Internet Explorer 5.01 and Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, running on Microsoft Windows 2000; Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP; and Internet Explorer 7. For Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows Server 2003, this security update is rated "moderate." This update addresses the vulnerabilities detailed in CVE-2008-4258, CVE-2008-4259, CVE-2008-4260, and CVE-2008-4261. Microsoft says the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer.
Exploitability index: 1-2. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately. Titled "Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959070)." This bulletin is rated critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Office Excel 2000. For all supported editions of Microsoft Office Excel 2002, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, and Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, this security update is rated important. For Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows Server 2003, this security update is rated moderate. This update addresses the vulnerabilities detailed in CVE-2008-4265, CVE-2008-4264, and CVE-2008-4266. Microsoft says if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file an attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities and take complete control of an affected system.
Exploitability index: 1-2. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately. Titled "Vulnerabilities in Windows Search Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959349)" This bulletin is rated critical for all supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. This update addresses the vulnerability detailed in CVE-2008-4268 and CVE-2008-4269. Microsoft says that "these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens and saves a specially crafted saved-search file within Windows Explorer or if a user clicks a specially crafted search URL. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system."
Exploitability index: 1. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update at the earliest opportunity. Titled "Vulnerabilities in Windows Media Components Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959807)", this bulletin is rated important for Windows Media Player 6.4, Windows Media Format Runtime 7.1, Windows Media Format Runtime 9.0, Windows Media Format Runtime 9.5, Windows Media Format Runtime 11, Windows Media Services 4.1, Windows Media Services 9 Series, and Windows Media Services 2008. This update addresses the vulnerabilities detailed in CVE-2008-3009 and CVE-2008-3010. Microsoft says the "most severe vulnerability could allow remote code execution. If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system."
Exploitability index: 1. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update at the earliest opportunity. Titled "Vulnerability in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Could Cause Elevation of Privilege (957175)", this bulletin is rated important for all supported editions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Search Server 2008. This update addresses the vulnerability detailed in CVE-2008-4032. Microsoft says the "vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker bypasses authentication by browsing to an administrative URL on a SharePoint site. A successful attack leading to elevation of privilege could result in denial of service or information disclosure."
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