Microsoft is to release eight security updates next week, to patch Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.
Five of the updates are designated "critical", including one which affects every version of the operating system supported by Microsoft.
Director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, Andrew Storms, told Computerworld.com: "That one has to be a pretty bad bug to be critical across the board like that."
Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Vista and the new server operating system Windows Server 2008 will also be patched.
"I would have expected a drop in criticality for Vista SP1 and most certainly in Server 2008. Something should have mitigated the vulnerability," commented Mr Storms.
Remote code execution implications are a recurring issue for Microsoft applications and services and all of the critical items will plug such vulnerabilities.
Mr Storms believes that the vulnerabilities could be the result of Microsoft's decision to "let anyone snoop through its software secrets".
The patches will be posted at 13:00 BST next Tuesday.
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