Internet Explorer zero-day bug to be patched out-of-cycle

Weeks after providing a workaround tool for a zero-day flaw in Internet Explorer, Microsoft is set to release a patch to address the issue.

The company posted an advance notification for an out-of-cycle patch Monday morning ahead of its release at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Microsoft recommends that admins apply the update as soon as possible and notes that the workaround tool provided in December does not need to be disabled during the patch.

This comes after reports that security researchers had found a hole in the “Fix it” tool, leading to speculation during last week’s Patch Tuesday that a fix would be released before February.

Microsoft notes that only older — and more widely used — versions of Internet Explorer needed the fix, so upgrading to IE 9 or IE 10 would also mitigate any threat related to this flaw.