One day after releasing a trio of security patches, Microsoft is upgrading the seriousness of one of those fixes to "critical."

The software update attached to security bulletin number MS04-009 has been rated "critical" by the Redmond, Washington, software company, after initially being described as an "important" patch on Tuesday. The change follows "continued evaluation" by Microsoft's Security Response Center, a company spokesman wrote in an e-mail on Wednesday.

Microsoft defines "critical" bulletins as those concerning software vulnerabilities that, if exploited, "could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action." "Important" bulletins concern vulnerabilities that, if exploited, "could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of users’ data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources," according to information on the company's Web site.

By Paul Roberts at InfoWorld.

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